My Love for You
by Chloe xxxx
Summary: Just a general story about love, adventure, loss, that kind of thing. P/T J/C K/7 Total fluff, first FanFic! Hope you love it! :3
1. Note from the Author (sorry)

**_Note from the Author:_**

Sorry to do this guys, I know how annoying it can be, I just felt like I was required to say this because I have seen it in quite a few I have personally read. I do not own any of the characters or themes from **StarTrek:Voyager, **I just absolutely love it. I also wanted to say if you have any suggestions, constructive criticisms or problems please let me know. If you have anything you would like to be included please leave a review and Ill consider it. Please follow or let me know if you have any issues, I want to make sure it's good enough for you guys.

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	2. Chapter 1

**_Chapter 1_**

"What do you mean a month?!" came B'ellanna's distressed cry.

"Be, it's only one month, not a year, and Voyager really need these supplies." Tom replied, guarding his face from B'ellana in fear of being hit by turning around again.

"But I'm going to be all alone, no one to cuddle at night and no one to ask me how my day was and actually listen" B'ellanna faded out realising how pathetic she must sound.

B'ellanna sat down on the edge of Tom's bed, with her arms crossed and head facing away. Tom sat down next to her and placed a gentle kiss on her head.

"It's only one month Be, and we can still talk over the comm line"

"I know but I'm going to… to.."

B'ellanna faded out, embarrassed about what she was going to say.

"Going to what Be?" Tom asked puzzled.

B'ellanna leaned into Tom's warm chest and wrapped her arms around his waist and sighed deeply, noticing his lover's distress, he wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her into his warm embrace.

"Be, I've never seen you this upset, what are you so worried about?"

"It's just, I've never felt what I feel for you for anyone else, ever. I love you so much Tom, I just don't like the thought of being away from you for so long, or losing you…"

B'ellanna began to sob into Tom's chest as her words sank in.

"Be, you're the most precious thing in this world to me, I love you more than anyone or anything, it's just a trade mission, I'll be fine, do you really think I'd go if there was any chance I'd get in danger. I hate the fact that it's going to be for a month, but I did it for us."

B'ellanna dried her face with her sleeve and looked up at him curiously, while Tom looked down and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"What do you mean you did it for us?"

"I mean, the Captain said, if this mission goes well, we will have enough spare resources we will be able to move into that double quarters we have been nagging her for."

Tom looked down at the joy in his lovers face as a smile appeared across her face, she leaned into and gave him a long, passionate kiss before breaking off and standing up.

"What time do you have to be at Cargo Bay 1 for?

"0900 hours, so we have about half an hour, do you want to help me pack?"

"I might as well, I don't have anything better to do" Came B'ellanna's reply as she leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss Tom, who mockingly leaned up on his. Fortunately for B'ellanna she was stood near the edge of the bed, she quickly put her foot on it, standing up so she was taller than him, and grabbing him, pulling him down with her as she fell. They landed in each other's arms on the bed, knocking the suitcase off. They both jumped as it hit the floor, then laughed in unison. Tom looked into B'ellanna's eyes and his face suddenly turned serious.

"Be?"

"Yes?" She said while manoeuvring herself up on top of him so she could nuzzle into his chest.

"I..I love you so much, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, you know that right?" She lifted her chin and rested her head on his chest.

"I always have, Tom" She said truthfully, looking into his eyes, "I feel the same way about you" She rolled off his chest, and stood up.

"We had better get you finished packing and down to Cargo Bay 1, eh?" She chirped enthusiastically. Tom stood up, straightening out his uniform, and picking up all the dropped items from the floor.

After finishing packing his items he zipped up his suitcase, pulled out the handle and rolled it across to the door where B'ellanna was waiting for him.

"You ready Flyboy?" She said mockingly.

"You bet" Tom replied, "You had better start moving all our stuff into those new quarters while I'm away" Tom said with a slight hint of teasing in his voice, watching the glimmer in his partners eyes grow.

"Oh I will" B'ellanna responded, finding Tom's hand and slipping hers into his, Tom's hand closed over hers and they headed out of the door towards the turbo lift.

After reaching the turbo lift and listening to the doors hiss shit, Tom's voice broke the calm silence as he inputted the data required.

"Deck 8"

The turbo lift hummed as it made its way to the inputted location, still holding Tom's hand she leaned into his strong chest and smiled, realising her life was now perfect, finally on track. As the doors to the turbo lift opened, the two walked out hand in hand and made their way along the corridor in silence, greeting friends and shipmates as they went, content in each other company until they reached the Cargo Bay, as the doors opened, the quiet serenity of the corridor was broken by the loud sounds coming from various crewmates.

"Tom, great, ok that's everyone, you were last so sadly you get the last choice of bunk, but I think Harry might have saved you a top one, go and put your stuff in the shuttle." Chakotay didn't wait for a reply, he turned to Neelix and asked for an inventory list who muttered, as Tom and B'ellanna, walked into the shuttle.

"I'm going to miss you so much Babe" B'ellanna said as she watched Tom put all his stuff into his giving storage space.

"I know, I'm going to miss you more" Tom said teasingly.

"No, I'm going to miss you more" B'ellanna said feircly.

Chakotay came up behind them, making both jump in shock.

"No time for any No You Hang Up first games, we need to go, I'll leave you too your good byes." The commander said, leaving the shuttle and rounding everyone one up.

"You'd better get to the helm, Flyboy" B'ellanna said, leaning in for a long kiss, wrapping her arms around Tom's neck, making everyone feel slightly awkward as they entered the shuttle.

"Come on you too, we need to get going." Chakotay said, being completely blanked, he got up and pulled the two apart.

"You've had long enough for long goodbyes, now it's time to go" The commanding officer made his way back to his controls at the front of the shuttle as Tom walked to the door with B'ellanna.

"I love you, Be, I'll be back soon, don't be too worried" Tom said with a smile.

"I love you too, when you get back our new quarter will be ready for us, I promise" B'ellanna said backing out of the door and walking away as Tom closed the hatch.

"Let's go" Chakotay said, as everyone took their correct positions.

The shuttle started up as the Cargo Bay doors hissed open and the shuttle took off.


	3. Chapter 2

"Chakotay to Voyager, anyone there?" Chakotay asked desperately as the shuttle rallied up and down through turbulence.

"Voyag.. here, what is…akotay?" The captain's voice came through the comm line, with static cutting it off.

"We nee… beam Harry a.. Neelix ab…. with all the sup… because we are under att… from the Kazo…" the comm link cut off.

"We have a lock on all four of you, and Tuvok has cleared up the comm link a bit better, can you hear me now?" came the captain's reply.

"Yes that's great, but only take Ensign Kim and Neelix, me and Tom are going to try and bring the shuttle back, but keep a lock on us in case."

"Okay Commander, if you're sure, we'll keep you on screen on the bridge so we can see what's happening out there, Janeway out."

The comm line cut off quietly and the shuttle was returned to the hissing of steam from all vents and the screeching of phaser bursts.

Paris and Chakotay watched as the other two men and their recently acquired supplies disappeared slowly.

The ship jolted as a Kazon phaser directly hit the hull.

"Tom, where's the screen?" Chakotay asked hurriedly while attempting to get weapons online.

"It went offline, along with the long-range sensors and weapons when they breached the hu-" he was cut off by another phaser hit, causing a warp core breach. "Warp core breach in 30 seconds" sounded the Starfleet warning program.

"Chakotay, what's going on down there, we are going to beam you out, stand by, Janeway out."

Another direct hit to the hull caused Voyagers lock on them to start disappearing, the interference in the comm system came back through.

"Shields at 24% and dropping, 19%, 14%, and holding, shields at 11% Commander"

Tom faded out as he realised Chakotay probably wasn't listening, and probably already knew. He watched the commander working at his station and began to think about B'ellanna, he wondered how she was taking this, and if she even knew.

"Chakotay, we've got interference, Tuvok is trying to clear it up now, hold tight. Janeway out."

"Warp core breach in 15 seconds" The silent of the shuttle was returned, again.

"Tuvok, can you get a lock on them yet?" came the Captains desperate voice.

"Not yet Captain, but I am close" Came Tuvok's stern reply.

B'ellanna stopped working at her console, and just sat back in her chair. She pulled her knees up underneath her chin and looked, mortified, at the screen in front of her, crying softly and silently.

A friendly arm wrapped around her and she looked up dizzily, at the blurry figure before her. The two of them were brought back to the present by an explosion on the screen and pieces of the former shuttle craft spreading across space.

"TOM!" B'ellanna screamed, sobbing furiously into the Captain's shoulder. The silent comforting was broken by Tuvok's steady voice; "Captain, Lieutenant Torres, I managed to lock onto them, I beamed them straight to sick bay"

B'ellanna's knees fell out from under her as the Captain held her steady, she was almost immediately in the turbo lift after she regained her strength.

"Deck 5" B'ellanna imputed nervously.

"Sickbay to Lieutenant Torres, are you there Lieutenant?" The EMH's voice cut off quickly and B'ellanna replied instantaneously.

"Torres here, what is it Doc?" B'ellanna tried to sound calm but the distress broke through anyway.

"You are registered as Lieutenant Paris' emergency contact, you are required at sickbay immediately, sickbay out."

B'ellanna felt immediately nauseous, why would Tom need his emergency contact if they were beamed out in time? She felt weak again, but as the turbo lift doors hissed open all her strength gave her the ability to run along the corridors. The doors to sickbay hissed open and she came in to see two faces looking at her.

"Chakotay, you're okay?" B'ellanna asked puzzled, looking around for Tom. Finding him in a bio-bed, unconscious and covered in blood, she felt traumatized and collapsed. A couple of minutes later, she was brought back to consciousness by the EMH, she looked over at her lover to find him a cleaned up, but still unconscious. She was tempted to run over and hug him when the EMH looked at her sadly, and sat down next to her.

"Lieutenant, I have bad news and good news. The good news is Mr Paris is going to make a full recovery, he had a fractured skull, 3rd degree plasma burns and a broken leg, but he is completely healed and in recovery."

B'ellanna looked puzzled as to why he said there was bad news, this is the best news, and he is alive and well.

"The bad news is, the fracturing of the skull and bleeding may has caused slight amnesia, it's not a definite, but if he does he will not remember the past 3 years of his life."

B'ellanna's eyes clouded over, her head was pounding, how could this have happened? He wouldn't remember their relationship or any of their best memories.

"What are the…stat..statistics?" B'ellanna said sadly.

"It's a 50-50% chance I'm afraid, but the bright side is we will know almost immediately, I suggest you head back to your joint-quarters, get a good night's sleep and by tomorrow evening we should know. B'ellanna nodded dumbly, hopped down off the bio-bed and exited sickbay.

"Enter" The captain said sadly, through her tears.

She walked through to her ready room from her bedroom, after hearing the doors open and close. She wiped her eyes and walked through to see Chakotay stood in the middle of her ready room, looking in perfect health. Without any thought, she ran straight across her ready room into his arms, hugging him closely and crying into his chest. He wasn't sure whether it was relief, happiness or sheer shock but he held the Captain close, and it felt like the world melted away.

"Kathryn…" Chakotay said quietly into her hair, "Are you okay, what's wrong?"

"Oh Chakotay, I thought you were dead, I couldn't live with myself, I was mortified, but you're okay, I was so worried, I missed you so much…" she trailed off, realising him and walking towards her couch, indicating for him to join her.

"Kathryn..." he began, joining her on her ready room couch, putting his arm along the back of the sofa, allowing her to lean into him, then wrapping his arm allowed her shoulder.

"Do you really think I'd ever leave this world for the next, without telling you how I felt?" He finished, looking down at her as she shuffled around to look at him. She lifted a hand and traced her finger along the tattoo on his forehead until running her hand down his cheek, cupping it and looking into his dark eyes, he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, to test if it was okay, she made the next move by pressing deeper into his kiss, he picked her up, and carried her through to her bedroom, where they lay for the entire night, content in each other's arms…..


	4. Chapter 3

B'ellanna was storming through the corridors to her and Tom's joint quarters, or could be joint quarters. She had had the worst day possible, the plasma conduits needed to be realigned, a console I engineering had exploded and Neelix was fussing about the replicators in the Mess Hall, again. She just wanted to get back to her 'quarters', have a shower, get changed and go to see Tom, she was so excited about seeing him. The doors to her quarters hissed open and the man stood in the room terrified her, she jumped back in shock, but realised it was Tom and settled down. She stood awkwardly near the doorway, not sure how to react, what if he didn't remember anything? She was absolutely terrified, B'ellanna couldn't remember the last time she was this scared.

"Hi Tom" she said nervously, hoping for the best.

"Be, I've missed you so much" he said, walking towards her.

B'ellanna's heart flooded with joy as she ran to him, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist, straddling him. She kissed him passionately until eventually she stopped to look in his eyes. She saw the love sparkling in his eyes and knew, for once, something great had happened for her.

"Oh Be, I missed you so much, I'm so sorry about what happened, I shouldn't never have go-" He was cut off by the fact that she kissed him again, more passionately, unwilling to let go. When she eventually did, she looked at him in an angry-teasing kind of way.

"Don't you dare, EVER do that to me again Flyboy, understand" she said, unbuttoning his shirt.

"I'm the only one who gets to break your bones, not the Kazon..." she said teasingly

"I promise" He said, lowering the two of them onto their, new bed….

=/\=

"Be?" Tom asked into the quiet darkness, hoping she was still awake.

"Yeah babe?" Came the reply, from somewhere across the dark room.

"I need to talk to you"

B'ellanna's guts churned, in her experience, those were never good words.

"Lights to 30%" she spoke into the computer moving across the room to sit down next to Tom, who was rustling about in his uniform pocket.

"I found you something while I was down on that planet, and I brought it for you, good thing I put it in my pocket not my bag" he chuckled, while she looked contentedly. "After what happened, I want you to know how much I love you, and I was going to save this for a later time, but I think now suits. He spoke softly. He took B'ellanna's hand in his a crouched down on the floor, B'ellanna's heart was pounding in her chest, was Tom Paris really proposing to her? She couldn't marry him though, which brought tears to her eyes.

"B'ellanna, I love you more than words can describe. And I want to always be with you, to love you for eternity and further, from the Delta Quadrant all the way to the Alpha, to every inch of this galaxy, because you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I don't ever want to let you go." Tom looked into B'ellanna's eyes, which were filled with tears.

"Oh Tom, I'd love to, but I can't" Her words were spoken softly, but it hit him like a punch to stomach. His eyes flooded with tears and all he could choke out was "Why?"

"B'ellanna hugged him sadly and replied "Because you're amazing Tom, your handsome, well-built, funny, patient, kind, loving, intelligent, and so much more, but I'm just a Klingon, and thanks to Vorik, I'm going to have a **_ponn far_** every seven years, break almost every bone in your body, I'm moody, angry, a disappointment and I can't offload that onto you, it wouldn't be fair. Believe me Tom, I would marry you in a heartbeat if I was a decent part of humanity, but I'm just me, what kind of life would you be living with me as a wife? She choked on her sadness and walked to the bed, crying. She sat down on the edge of the chair and looked at him, who was now standing over her. He looked more angry than upset.

"What kind of life would I have?!" He raised his voice, "I would have a dream life, my dream life, I have been in a relationship with you for almost 3 years now B'ellanna, if I didn't want to be with you I wouldn't be, I'm in love with you B'ellanna, I have been since the first year here on Voyager, you are all I have ever wanted, and all I ever will, and you're not just some Klingon, your my Klingon, and I love you, who cares about your mood-swings or the **_ponn far, _**I get mood swings and as far as I can recall, you should be ready to have another **_ponn far _**anytime now, and I'm ready for it, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, you're funny, kind, unbelievable pretty, passionate, kind and I don't want to let you go and I won't, so don't let me go?" Tom looked into her eyes, pleadingly, tears poured down his face.

"You really think you can handle it, I don't want to hurt you, I don't even deserve you Tom. I'm giving you a chance to back out now if you want to, and I won't hold anything against you, like you did for me after we ejected from the shuttle and we spoke after Tuvok's promotion party" B'ellanna said, wiping her eyes, just for more tears to leave her eyes.

"You could never hurt me Be, and I want to continue into our relationship, just like you did on that night remember?" Tom said pulling her in to a strong kiss. "And Be, you deserve someone much better than me, I'm the one that doesn't deserve you, don't ever think differently."

"Okay" she spoke softly into his shoulder, pulling him into a hug, lying down on the bed in his arms.

"Tom Paris, I would love to marry you."

The two lay, happily in each other's arms, discussing how they would tell the Captain and crew…

Kathryn and Chakotay were still in each other's arms in Kathryn's bed when Tuvok arrived at her ready room doors, Chakotay quickly ducked down under the covers, while she walked through into her ready room, to greet Tuvok.

"Tuvok, what can I do for you?" She asked, nonchalantly.

"Well Captain, you were late to the Bridge this morning, you were supposed to be there by 0800 hours, it is 1031hours, you are 0231 hours late an-" Tuvok was cut off by a hand wave from the Captain, who was on her way over to the replicator for her morning coffee.

"Also Captain, we are missing quite a few crew members, Lieutenant Paris is on Bedrest in his quarters until Tuesday, as authorized by the Doctor, Lieutenant Torres didn't report to Engineering, but did report in that she wouldn't be coming and Commander Chakotay has not arrived for his shift on the Bridge either, I visited his room but he was not there, would you like me to locate him on the computer?" Tuvok finished reading from his PADD, noticing the Captain glancing into her bedroom, probably oblivious to most of what he just said.

"Captain, is something wrong" Tuvok acquired sternly.

"No, nothing's wrong Tuvok, thank you for your report, I will go and find Commander Chakotay myself, and I authorized Lieutenants Torres' day off last night, she is off with Mr. Paris until Tuesday and send the report to my computer" the Captain spoke quickly.

Tuvok nodded and left. She waited for the doors to her ready room to hiss shut quietly, turning to the doors of her bedroom to notice Chakotay still under the covers. She gently placed her coffee down on the table near her computer and sneaked up to the bed quietly and jumped onto the lump underneath the covers, to find them flatten underneath her. She pulled back the duvet to find it full of pillows, just before she felt warm arms wrap around her waist and pull her up into the air, to which Mark had never done. In fact, Mark had never played any little games like this with her, or just lay awake at night listening to her problems, made her coffee in the middle of the night for no reason, or just sat rubbing her shoulders and neck to make her feel better after a rough day, in just one night he had done all this, and in all her time with Mark he didn't do any. Still flying through the air, in the arms of her new partner she couldn't help but speak some of her thoughts aloud.

"Oh god, Chakotay, I love you so much" Kathryn laughed as she flew. She immediately felt him swing her down over the bed, he leaned over her and moved in so close she could feel his breath against her lips as he spoke.

"Do really mean that, or is it just an outburst?" He looked deep into Kathryn's eyes as she looked at him, confused as to where this had suddenly come from.

"Oh Chakotay, of course I mean it, in just one night you have made me happier being with you then I ever was with Mark. I love you Chakotay, I love you so much" She pulled him down into a long, deep kiss, and when he broke off he looked into her eyes he let one small tear run down his face.

"I love you too" he replied gently, wrapping his hands back around her waist, causing laughter to erupt from her straight away. After a little more spinning, they lay together on the bed.

"Computer, what time is it?" Kathryn asked quietly, waiting for its response.

"Time is; 1049 hours"

"I'd better go and 'find out' where you are then?" Kathryn said, make Chakotay laugh for a minute. "Site to site transport, and I'll come by your quarters?"

"Sounds good, but what excuse is good enough to fool Tuvok? He already knows I wasn't there this morning." Chakotay said while rummaging around to help Kathryn get ready.

"How about…..you were visiting Tom and B'ellanna to check up on him?" Kathryn replied while brushing her hair through.

"Sounds great" Chakotay replied while tapping inn his security access codes into the console. "Site-to-site transport ready" He shouted through to Kathryn, to his surprise came through with a new uniform on over her legs, unzipped carrying a new grey-vest top. As she pulled it on he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap, fastening her pins onto the neckline of her vest-top. Before he reached around and zipped up her jump suit. She turned her head around and kissed him, slowly and lovingly.

"Ill beep Tom and B'ellanna and tell them to go along with it, do you want be to tell them about us or-?" Chakotay faded out, giving her space.

"Yes, we can trust them, I don't want to tell the whole crew yet though." Kathryn replied, kissing him again. She stood up and watched as the man sat in front of her faded away, molecule by molecule, until he was gone.

"Chakotay to Torres, Torres reply." He listened carefully, and retried until she answered.

"What Chakotay, I'm kind of bust right now." B'ellanna said hurriedly, fidgeting around.

"I'm so sorry for….interrupting you guys, I just need you to go along with a plan for me and Kathr-The Captain. Me and The Captain" Chakotay left the Comm line online but stood in silence.

"What is the plan Chakotay, as I said I'm kinda busy with Tom" B'ellanna said, immediately returning to kissing Tom which made Chakotay feel awkward and just wanted to get it over with.

"I spent the night with the Captain last night, and we aren't ready to tell anyone but you two, so the plan is, I was visiting you two this morning, that is why I wasn't at my quarters, or at the Bridge on time, oh and B'ellanna?" Chakotay said quickly and awkwardly.

"Yes Chakotay?" She said through gritted teeth.

"The Captain says you can have until Tuesday off with Tom." He said as he heard Kathryn's footsteps coming down the corridor towards his quarters.

"Great thanks, is that it?" She asked desperately, moaning in the background.

"Yes, Chakotay out." He felt extremely awkward to have interrupted them at this time, but if they had until Tuesday all day to be doing these activities hopefully they would be refreshed for when they return to duty. He couldn't help but chuckle away to himself. The Captain entered straight away, without asking permission to enter and ran straight into Chakotay's arms.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." She looked up at Chakotay and leaned into his kiss.

"Let's get to the bridge. Did you explain everything to Tom and B'ellanna, how are they by the way." Kathryn said as they walked.

"Oh they were more than unhappy to hear from me, they had other…concerns."


	5. Chapter 4

"Go to Red alert" The Captain said sternly. "Hail them"

"There not responding, Captain" Chakotay said glancing towards her. Kathryn couldn't help but look over to him, they starred into each other's eyes, long enough for a couple of crew members to start exchanging glances. At some point, but neither were sure when, their hands had drifted together and they were now holding hands, starring at one-another. They were jolted back to the moment by another hit from the opposing ship. They shuffled away from each other awkwardly, hoping nobody had noticed, but everybody had.

"Tuvok, report." The first Commander spoke strongly, making the Captain's heart skip a beat, just at the sound of his voice.

"Shields at 72%, and holding. We have tried to hail them, with no response. We have 6 injuries in sickbay, none severe." Tuvok spoke harshly, but unsurprisingly.

"Tuvok, target their weapons array." The Captain spoke softly, embarrassed about the previous events.

"Direct hit Captain, they have entered warp, shall I track them on long-range censors?" Tuvok asked, tapping away at his console.

"No, let them go, remove red alert." The lights came back on immediately. Chakotay left his seat and walked forward slightly, congratulating the crew. Before Kathryn even knew what she was doing, she had jumped up and was straight into Chakotay's arms, giving him a long passionate kiss in front of the rest of the crew. They didn't break off until a crew member from the other side of the bridge 'cleared their throat'. Chakotay let go straight away, knowing that the Captain would most likely be embarrassed, but she didn't let go. She held onto him around his neck, looking into his eyes, telling him it's okay, and that she's ready to tell them. He put his arms back around her waist, hugging her close and whispering into her ear, until she was ready to talk. The crew on the Bridge waited patiently until they had turned around, holding hands.

"Me and Chakotay, are-" The Captain got as far as she could before stopping, too embarrassed about the circumstances in which they had found out. The Captain looked around at the 16 members of crew looking at her, and felt over-whelmed. She passed out in Chakotay's arms, luckily, he was still holding onto her, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into her ready room letting Tuvok know he had the Bridge.

Kathryn's eyes began to open and she began to regain consciousness, Chakotay realised quickly, because she began to stir from where he'd laid her on his chest.

"Hey there Sleeping Beauty." Chakotay said, with a slight tone of sexiness in his voice.

"Hey, how long have I been out?" Kathryn said sleepily while Chakotay brushed hair off her face.

"A couple of hours, 4 or 5 maybe, our shifts are over anyway, so what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. But do you know something I've always wanted to do with you?" Kathryn said, more awake now.

"What's that?" Chakotay enquired, on his way over to the replicator.

"I've always wanted you to draw me one of those tattoos, would you do that for me?" Kathryn suddenly felt awkward, almost as if the air thickened. "I know they have a spiritual meaning to you, but anything that's important to you is important to me, and I'd really like to get to know you a little better in that sense"

Chakotay leaned back against the wall, sipping his tea and looking over at her. He walked across the room and sat down next to her, kissing her for a long time. When she looked up at him afterwards, he handed her a coffee and after she took a sip she spoke;

"What was that for?" she asked, drinking her coffee.

"Just for being you, and I'd love to draw you one of my tattoos." Chakotay replied. "I have some spare holo-deck time if you want to go for a fancy dinner, dancing, maybe a moonlight boat ride?" He said as he sat down, her moving onto his lap.

"Mhhhm." Kathryn nuzzled into his chest, considering his proposition. "How about…I make, or replicate, a nice dinner and we could go to the holo-deck, and we could go to the beach resort Neelix always throws his party's at, I have a new bikini I'd like to try out…"

Kathryn could feel Chakotay's response because she was sat on his lap, and she kissed him deeply.

"Sounds like a plan" Chakotay said, stroking up and down his lovers side. "You want to invite Tom and B'ellanna, or just me and you?" Chakotay offered, drinking the last of his tea.

"I think we should invite them, it'd be nice to catch up with them, plus, me and you have all night together afterwards." Once again, Kathryn felt her lover's response beneath her. "I'll start making dinner, you invite them." Kathryn stood up and began to walk over to the replicator when Chakotay grabbed her arm, pulling her back and kissing her before she went. "I love you." Chakotay spoke quietly. "I love you too" she leaned into him and kissed him, before continuing her mission to make him and amazing dinner.

"Chakotay to Torres, Torres are you there?" Chakotay spoke loudly into the Comm line, hoping he hadn't just 'interrupted' them again.

"Paris here, B'ellanna isn't available right no-ooo-ow" Tom said over the Comm link.

"Are you alright Tom, sorry to bother you, are you and B'ellanna busy…like…..before" Chakotay spoke while shuffling around, listening to Kathryn laughing in the background.

"No, no, we were just in the shower, and I stepped out answer your call but…I fell. Fell. Nothing to do with B'ellanna throwing a soap bar." Tom heard Chakotay laughing into the Comm line.

"Well me and Kathryn were just wondering if in about an hour and a half you would like to join us for some private holo-deck time at the beach resort." Chakotay spoke into the Comm, after going up behind Kathryn and nuzzling into her hair.

"I'll go ask B'ellanna, I'll get back to you, in case I 'fall' again." He heard the laughs of his Captain and Commanding officer across the Comm line as he ended the transmission.

"So who was it, Chakotay again? and I'm sorry I threw soap at you" B'ellanna said as Tom re-entered the bathroom.

"It's fine Be, and yeah, Chakotay wants to know if we want to go the beach resort with him and the Captain in about an hour. You wanna go?" Tom asked as he stepped back into the shower with B'ellanna waiting for him.

"Yeah, I think it'd be nice, do you wanna go?" She slipped her arms around his neck and slipped up against him. She heard him moan and looked at him as he went in to kiss her, just as she reached his lips she grabbed his face, jolted it sideways and bit him, she drew blood and heard him moan again at her bite. She had bitten him so many time that now he found it as pleasurable as she did, and no longer painful. She leapt out of the shower and ran into the rest of their new quarters. Because he had only been in these new quarters for a few days, whereas B'ellanna had been in here for a month, he knew none of her new hiding places. He got out of their shower, turning it off and dashed through into their dark bedroom. He crept around slowly and quietly, after about 10 minutes, he couldn't find her, and it was too quiet. B'ellanna was usually impatient and came out after 2 or 3 minutes. He was still searching when he walked past an air vent and realised how cold it was, he was shivering as he was still naked.

"Computer, what's the temperature in here?"

"3.2 degrees" the computer replied automatically.

"Turn it up to 4.7" Tom replied returning to his search, he was worried about how cold it was, because Klingons don't handle cold too well. He came across B'ellanna underneath the air vent, and nudged her. She didn't reply. He discovered that she had passed out after crouching under the vent and getting too cold, he wondered how long she had been unconscious. Tom picked her up and tucked her under the covers of their beds, along with himself. He grabbed his comm badge and cuddled close to B'ellanna, he felt her skin began to warm back up.

"Paris to Chakotay." He listened carefully for Chakotay to answer.

"Chakotay here, you guys decided?" He spoke, swallowing what he had been eating.

"Yeah, we'll meet you there, what program is it, just so we know what to wear?" Tom spoke after gently crawling out from underneath B'ellanna and replicating the two of them a nice dinner. He had been saving up all his replicator rations for the past two months to make himself and B'ellanna an amazing meal, and decided to do it tonight. He had also picked up a couple of 'accessories' from the planet where he had been staying, which he had sent back with the supplies before the shuttle explosion. He initialised a site-to-site transport of said items and watched as they appeared. He had a small, round fold up table, a table cloth and some candles, as well as some nice new cutlery. He laid them all out and lit the candles. He scrolled through the available meals and settled for a steak dinner, with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, veggies, gravy and a bottle of champagne. He walked over to his wardrobe and chose a suitable pair of black swim shorts, which he knew were B'ellanna's favourite, and a bright blue, tropical top as a pull over. He chose a black bikini for his fiancé, and a white dress to go over the top. The meal finished replicating and Tom crawled back into bed with B'ellanna, brushing hair out of her face, causing her to wake up.

"Hey….what…happened?" she said groggily.

"You passed out after hiding under the vent, babe" He said, leaning in and kissing her. "I made us some dinner, I brought supplies back for the new quarters. Take a look." B'ellanna looked over at where a small table with candles and a beautiful dinner all laid out. She let a single tear trickle down her face.

"Oh, Tom, you did all this for me?" she asked leaning into him.

"Of course, you're worth so much more than just a steak dinner and some candles, but I thought it would be romantic." He replied. She cupped his face to kiss him and pulled her hand back, noticing blood on her hand. She took hold of his face and looked at where she had bit him.

"Oh god, Tom, I'm so sorry." B'ellanna said in horror looking at what she had done. She had bitten him before but never this deep.

"For what Be?" Tom said, laughing in a puzzled way.

"For this" she said, stroking around it.

"Why? You've bit me before?"

"Yeah, but never this deep, and it's never bled for this long before. She scanned the rest of his neck and noticed a large bruise where she had thrown the bar of soap at him. She looked mortified when she saw it. "Oh god, I took it too far, I've really hurt you this time, I'm so sorry" B'ellanna said, now in tears. "Take off your shirt, let me see what I've done."

"Be, I'm fine you didn't-" He got that far before she ripped the shirt off him and moved to sit behind him. She stroked along the lines she had made in his back, many also bleeding. She began quickly looking around for a medical tricorder. She scanned it over him while he insisted he was fine.

B'ellanna took a deep breath and read what the tricorder displayed; "Bruising to the arms, chests and neck, a cut to the face, seven cuts on the back and a sprained thumb". She spoke the last words quietly still crying.

"Oh Be, that's nothing, I've probably done worse to you, let's see. He scanned the device over her until it displayed all her injuries. "3 cuts along the back, 4 cuts on your hips, sprained wrist, and bruising along your back, arms, thighs, neck and … crotch." He laughed at the last one, and it raised a smile from her. "See, I've done much worse to you." She looked up at him and he leaned down into a strong kiss. "Now, I've made you dinner and laid out your clothes, but we only have 20 minutes before we meet the Captain and Chakotay, so let's get eating" Tom said, as B'ellanna pulled on her bikini and dress.

"You got everything, Babe?" Tom shouted through to the bathroom.

"Yeah, got the Sunscreen" B'ellanna said as she walked back through.

"What's in your little bag then?" Tom said, finishing his drink.

"Err…two towels, my wrap around, two pads, both our sunglasses, sunscreen and your sandwich."

"Perfect. You ready to go then?" Tom enquired.

"Yeah, just pulling on my sandals." B'ellanna said as the door went.

"Enter" They both said in unison, laughing as the other couple entered.

"You ready to go?" Chakotay said, as Kathryn unlinked his arm and went over to talk to B'ellanna.

"Yep." Tom replied quickly as they all left.


	6. Chapter 5

"Ensign Kim, I require your assistance in astrometrics." Harry gritted his teeth as he turned to face Seven of Nine.

"Hi Seven, how can I help 'ya?" Harry replied cheerfully.

"I'd like to realign some sensors to make them longer range." Seven replies, standing behind him with a PADD. "These are some calculations I've already made." Seven handed him the PADD and he looked over it.

"Looks great, let's go." Harry followed her down the corridor towards her lab.

"Ensign Kim, may I ask you something?" Seven broke the silence.

"Seven, you can call me Harry if you would prefer, and go ahead." Harry replied, continuing tapping at his console.

"I don't see the point in 'first names', why are they used?" Seven queried.

"Well, it's hard to say, but, it brings people closer so they are better friends." Harry replied.

"Thank you…Harry." Seven answered. "And my original question was, why do the Captain and Commander, or Lieutenant Torres and Lieutenant Paris spend so much time together, if they copulate why must they 'flirt'?" Seven spoke, moving closer towards Harry. "Much like the way you 'flirt' with me Harry." He felt her hand cover his and looked up at her, puzzled.

"Seven…" Harry was unsure of what to say or do.

"Harry, I have studied the way Lieutenant Torres and Lieutenant Paris look at each other, feel about each other. I feel that way for you." Seven leaned in and kissed Harry, pressing further into him, his arms wrapped around her waist and her arms around her shoulders. They stayed this way for several minutes before Seven broke it off. "May we go to your quarters Harry?" Harry didn't even reply, he just grabbed her hand and began to walk.

"Aren't they just so cute together?" Kathryn said to Chakotay, who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"I'm not sure _cute_ is the right word. Cute cat, cute dog, judging by those scratches and bruises all over each other and that bite on Tom's face I'd say-…ow!" Chakotay looked down at Kathryn who was grinning up at him. "Did you just bite my cheek?" Chakotay asked rubbing the side of his face.

"I just wanted to do what B'ellanna did to Tom, confirm that he is hers and no other females are permitted to go within a metre of him. I own you now" Kathryn sat laughing on the step until Chakotay grabbed her cheek and bit her back, he then rubbed it away for her.

"Now, we own each other." The two sat in the warmth of the sun, watching the younger couple roll about in the sand, eventually lying back into the warm stone and watching the clouds.

"Got you pinned babe, what are you gonna do now?" Tom said, holding B'ellanna's arms and legs down.

"Not so fast flyboy" B'ellanna said, struggling to get up but failing. She thought about the one trick she had left, to regain dominance. "You've been working out…" B'ellanna said teasingly. She felt him weaken slightly, but not enough for her to push him off yet.

"Nice try babe, but it's not going to work." He said laughing, kissing her passionately.

She lifted her hips and ground them against him, making him weaken considerably, for long enough that she re-gained dominance. "Are you sure?" She said mockingly. He devised himself a new plan, and he threw all his effort into rolling over into the water, where the waves lapped up against the sand. B'ellanna, quickly jumped up off Tom and ran out into the warm water not looking back until she was far out, but she looked back and Tom wasn't there. She looked around, floating there in the water until something pushed up beneath her legs, she rose completely out of the water and was on Tom's shoulders. He reached his hands up above his head for her to hold onto and she grasped them.

"Tom, I'm gonna fall." B'ellanna shouted, laughing through her words. Chakotay and Kathryn sat up and looked over at what they were doing. "You wanna go for a swim Chakotay?" Kathryn said passionately, she walked her fingers up his legs, "I'll show you my new bikini…." She said while standing up.

"Oh, yes please!" Chakotay said, taking off his shirt to reveal his chiselled figure. Kathryn traced her lips along his chest, then suddenly ran down the steps to the water. He followed her, trying to catch her but missing a few times, he then took a different turn and arrived in front of her, scooping her up and carrying her to the waters edge. He set her down and she lifted her dress to reveal a teal blue bikini with cherries polka dotting all over it.

"So, what do ya' think?" She asked teasingly, spinning a little.

"I think…..I can't wait to take it off you later, but it does look incredibly good on you….." He faded out as he picked her up and carried her into the water.

"Aww Tom, look, don't you think they make such a good couple?" B'ellanna said, looking over the balcony, watching them having a small water fight.

"They really do Be, almost as good as us." Tom pulled her over onto his lap, and handed her a PADD. "Do you wanna go through some wedding designs and idea-" B'ellanna ground herself against him and bit along his bare chest as he undid her bikini top.

"Afterwards" was the one word she said before both of their swim costumes were lying on the floor.

=/\=

"What are they talking about?" Chakotay whispered to Kathryn as they crept up the stairs towards the other couple.

"I haven't got a clue. They already moved into their new quarters so why would they be talking about, fabrics, colours and all that kind of stuff?" Kathryn asked as Chakotay pointed at the PADD's and indicated for her to snatch one when she did.

"Be, what if we did it with Klingon and human rituals?" Tom suggested while B'ellanna thought about it.

"Yeah, I like that." She leaned it to him and lay on his chest, playing with his chest hair. "I'm so happy were doing this Tom. How does B'ellanna Paris sound?" B'ellanna and Tom laughed to each other but suddenly stopped as their PADD's with all their plans on were snatched away from them.

"Are you two-"

"Getting married?!" Kathryn finished, while scrolling through all the data.

They all remained in silence for a while until Kathryn and Chakotay eventually handed back the PADD's and sat down. Tom waved over one of the holo-waiters and ordered all of them a drink before answering their question, sipping his drink once it had arrive. He began to speak, but it wasn't long before B'ellanna took over.

"Yes, we-" Tom began.

"Yes we are. Tom convinced me that even that I should marry him, even though I don't deserve him, he said some things and then we talked, and it just kind of….happened." Chakotay nodded and Kathryn smiled brightly.

"I'm so happy for you two." Kathryn said, beaming.

"Well, Captain, I was wond-" B'ellanna started before being cut off.

"You can call me Kathryn." The Captain said cheerfully.

"Okay, thank you. _Kathryn _I was wondering whether you would lead the ceremony and be… my umm…..my maid of honour?" B'ellanna suddenly felt extremely embarrassed. , at least she did until Kathryn leaped around the table and hugged her until she almost couldn't breathe.

"Oh B'ellanna, I'd love to." Kathryn shuffled back around the table and leaned into Chakotay while he wrapped his arm around her.

"Chakotay, will you walk me down the aisle? I don't mean it to offend you, it's just, you're the closest thing I have ever had to a father and-"

"I would love to." Chakotay cut her off, and smiled at her across the table.

"You don't have, if you would rather be Tom's best man, because we had you down for that too in case you-"

"B'ellanna, I'll do both." Chakotay answered. "Now, I'm going to leave you two to your wedding plans, Kathryn, join me for another swim?" Kathryn nodded in reply to him and they walked hand in hand toward the sea.

"Be, you still awake?" Tom nudged her, but she just moved a little. He laid her down and ran down the steps, so he was close enough to shout to The Captain and Commander, but far enough not to wake his fiancé. "Chakotay, Captain, I think 3 hours was enough to wipe B'ellanna out, I'm gonna take us back to our quarters." Tom shouted down to the couple playing in the water.

"Okay Tom, thanks for coming. See you soon." He heard his Captain shout in reply. He gave a thumbs up and headed back up. He packed up the bag of all their stuff and picked up B'ellanna. He carried her back through all the corridors and laid her down onto their bed, he changed her into her nightwear and got changed himself, He crawled in next to her, and fell asleep almost straight away.

"What do you want me to replicate for you Kat, a coffee?" Chakotay shouted through to his partner's room.

"No, I'm in a Champagne mood, do you want some?" Kat said as she came through. Chakotay, who was pressing buttons into her ready room replicator, was unaware of the fact that she was in her bikini. She slipped her arms around his waist and he turned around to see her in her bikini.

"You still wanna take it off me?" Kat said teasingly, as she walked through to her bedroom, with Chakotay close on her tail.

=/\=


	7. Chapter 6

"Kat, wake up." Chakotay gently shook her shoulders until she woke up. "Kat, I've got to get to the Bridge, do you want to come today, or are you going to stay here." Chakotay murmured into her ear, kissing along her neck.

"I should go, I can't leave the crew just because of our relationship change. But will you wait for me, I want us to walk out together." Kathryn rolled over to face her lover, he could barely see him in the darkness of the room. "Lights to 30%" she commanded the computer, she listened as the computer beeped away.

"Course, I'll go and replicate some breakfast, what would you like?" Chakotay said as he rolled over and out of the covers, causing cold air to draft up Kathryn's back, making her shiver.

"Just some toast." She shouted through to him. "And a coffee." She said as an addition.

"Of course." He shouted through, chuckling. He picked up all their clothes and beach items off the floor from where they had left them the previous night, and put them into a laundry basket Kathryn had. He programmed the breakfast orders, and drinks into the replicator and waited for them to arrive. He laid them out on the counter and went through to let her know it was ready. Kathryn was dressed and brushing her hair so it looked tidy.

"Breakfasts ready." Chakotay said, popping his head through the door.

"Great, on my way." Kathryn said, attaching the last of her pins to her collar line. She walked through and met Chakotay, who was already sat at the table. They chatted about irrelevant things over breakfast and prepared to leave for the Bridge. Kathryn slipped her hand through his and prepared herself. She watched as the doors hissed open onto the bridge and watched as many faces turned to look at her and her lover.

B'ellanna surfaced and looked over to see whether Tom had woken up yet. He hadn't. She looked at herself and realised he must have carried her home after she fell asleep and got her changed. She leaned over to him and stroked hair out of his face, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.

"Thank you, baby." She said into the quiet darkness. She must have woken him, because he began to stir.

"For what?" He said sitting up sleepily.

"I'm sorry for waking you, and for carrying me back last night." She said, turning around to face him properly. "You should have just woke me up, I could have walked back, you didn't need to carry me" she said smiling. She stroked over his face where she had bitten him and kissed over it gently. "Does it hurt?" She said, inspecting it.

"No." He replied quickly, standing up and walking across to the counter. "I came up with some guest list last night after you fell asleep, want to look over them?" Tom threw B'ellanna a PADD, and climbed back under the covers with her. She nuzzled into him and turned her PADD on.

"Lights to 45%" She spoke quietly, while arranging her pillows to be comfier.

"Okay, so I've got Harry down as my best man, Neelix as the chef, of course, I also put Tuvok down as the witness if that's okay, I thought it would be_ the most logical course of action_" He said, impersonating Tuvok, which made B'ellanna laugh. "I also have Chakotay down as your 'father' to walk you down the aisle, and the Captain as maid of honour and to lead the ceremony. Is there anyone else you would like to get down, for main roles I mean?" He asked looking down at her.

"I would like Seven as a bridesmaid, I think it would be nice for her, and good for our friendship." B'ellanna looked up at Tom, who had a look of amazement on his face.

"Are you sure, I thought she really annoyed you?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I think so." She said, listening to Tom tap her name and role into the PADD. "Oh and maybe we could have little Naomi Wildman as a flower girl, I'm sure she would love to run along and throw petals everywhere?" B'ellanna laughed as Tom tapped it into the PADD.

"Great, I'll talk to all of them today. This is our last day off together before we both return to our stations, so what do you do?" He asked, tapping away at his PADD.

"Well, I'd like to go over a few more wedding details, if you don't mind, then I'm not sure, maybe we could go to the Holo-deck?" B'ellanna asked, sitting up and going thru some information on her PADD.

"Sounds great."

"Okay so can I ask one thing, Tom, about the wedding?" She asked nervously.

"Go ahead, babe. Whatever you want to do, I'm happy to go with, as long as it makes you happy." He said, kissing along her forehead ridges.

"Can I…..can….Can I wear a white dress, like humans do when they get married, I just really like the idea of a white dress and a veil and all that? Would that be okay with you?" She said timidly, looking away and leaning away from him.

He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her back, he kissed her for a long time then broke off. "I think you're gonna look gorgeous in it." He said, pulling her back into another kiss.

"Seven, Seven wake up!" Harry shook her until she woke.

"Harry, what is so urgent?" Seven asked, vividly awake.

"Seven, we were supposed to be on duty half an hour ago, or at least I was!" He said hurriedly. "You have another hour. You should go and recharge. Do you want me to walk you there?" He said pulling on his shoes and fastening the pins to his collar line.

"I am capable of walking there alone, but I want you to come." Seven replied sternly, straightening his bed sheets.

"Great, if you get dressed, we can set off." Harry said while eating a piece of toast.

"I am already dressed, Harry." Seven said, mechanically. Harry spun round to look at her. She raised an eyebrow in question at his look of amazement on his face.

"Let's go then." He walked over to Seven and grabbed her hand, leading her out of the room. The corridors were busy and loud as they walked along to the Cargo Bay. When they got there Harry stepped inside as Seven stepped up to her recharging post. He stepped up and gave her a kiss.

"I'll see you later" he said as she stepped into her unit.

"Kat." Chakotay leaned in and whispered to Kathryn.

"Yeah?" She replied, also leaning in.

"Look, Tom sent us a message, he wants us to read it to the crew." He said, pointing at the computer between their two chairs. He clicked it open and they both read over the message. "Do you want me to do a ship wide Comm line or?" Chakotay said, re reading it.

"No, I'm going to tell Bridge members first, then do a ship-wide Comm line." She nodded to him as she stood up. "Can I have your attention please, just for a minute?" She looked round as the crew all began to look at her. "I have received a message from Tom and B'ellanna, they have decided they are now ready to tell you all, that they are getting married." The Captain smiled as she looked around as crew members smiled. "I am going to do a ship-wide Comm line connection now, and read out roles." She looked back to Chakotay who handed her a PADD with all the information downloaded onto it. She tapped her badge. "This is a ship-wide announcement, all crew members must listen. I have received information that Lieutenant Paris and Lieutenant Torres will be getting married, they are holding a ceremony and would like to include: Me to do the Ceremony and to be the maid of Honour, Chakotay to walk B'ellanna down the aisle, Tuvok to be the witness" She looked over at him and he raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement. "Harry Kim to be the best man, Neelix as the chef and organiser, Seven to be a bridesmaid" The Captain couldn't help but pause to look at the crew in the Bridge, who were all as surprised as she was, "and finally, little Naomi Wildman to be the flower girl. Will you all please talk to Tom or B'ellanna tomorrow when they return to duty if you would like to accept your role." She tapped off her Comm badge and went to sit down back in her chair. At that exact moment Harry Kim came panting into the Bridge, alarming everyone.

"Sorry I'm…..late….I…overslept." He said, clearly having ran here.

"Its fine Harry, is Seven okay?" Chakotay asked turning round. Harry flushed as everyone looked at him.

"She's…err…well….yeah, she doing fin-" calm down Harry, Tuvok saw you walking with her to the Cargo Bay, he reported in for you. He nodded at Tuvok in appreciation, as Chakotay turned back around. "

"Captain, there is a ship just off the port bow, and another one in front of the hull." Ensign Kim's voice broke the silence,

"On screen." Came the Captain's steady reply.

"They're Vidiian. Go to red alert." She said standing up. "Tuvok, report?"

The Vulcan looked up from his console and spoke aloud; "They are not charging weapons, 3 life signs on each ship, they are not charging weapons but they are charging-" Tuvok cut off. "Intruder Alert" The message alerted all staff members and was on every alert system throughout the ship.

"Tuvok, where are they?" Chakotay asking, standing up behind his Captain.

"Two in the Mess Hall, one at the Brig, two in Engineering and one in….. Lieutenant Paris and Lieutenant Torres' quarters." Tuvok said, doing his infamous Vulcan eyebrow raise. The Captain turned pale.

"Oh no." She looked at Chakotay worriedly. "Tuvok, assemble a security team and go to engineering, then the Brig, then the Mess Hall." He nodded as he grabbed his phaser and ran toward the turbo-lift, speaking into his Comm. "Chakotay, you're with me, they're probably only here for B'ellanna." The Captain said, indicating for Chakotay to follow her.

Tom was in his bed looking through wedding on details on a PADD when he heard a loud erupt from the living room, he ran through to find B'ellanna cowering in the middle of the room. Being held at gunpoint by a Vidiian.

"B'ellanna!" he ran in front of her as the Vidiian fired a shot at her, firing at him as he was hit. The Vidiian tumbled to the floor as Tom staggered around, bleeding badly.

"Oh my God, Tom." B'ellanna ran to the bedroom and grabbed her Comm badge. "Torres to Sickbay, Sickbay respond!"

"Sickbay here, what is it Lieutenant, is this another one of you and Tom's 'battle' wounds?" The EMH asked sarcastically into the Comm line.

"No, Doctor, Tom's been shot, it's an emergency, we need site to site transport, NOW!" She sobbed into the Comm Link. She watched as she faded out of their quarters, into Sickbay. When they arrived in Sickbay her partner had been beamed onto a biobed, and she was on the other side of the room. She ran over to him and fell down by his side. She swept the wet hair off the side of his face. She leant over and cried into his arm. He reached over and stroked her hair, until he lost consciousness from the pain. The doctor came over and nudged B'ellanna out of the way, and he began work. After an hour. B'ellanna had fallen asleep in the chair next to Tom's bed, while the doctor still worked. The Vidiian's from the ship had been sent back and had left. There was no other patients in Sickbay, but there had been two and B'ellanna watched as the doctor treated them, neither were as serious as Toms. She woke up approximately four hours later, after the Doctor had woken her up.

"Where's….Where's Tom?" She jumped up, looking around startled.

"He is back in your quarters safe and…sound?" The EMH said, although B'ellanna had already run out of Sickbay.

She ran into the Turbo-Lift and inputted the correct data, after arriving at her floor and section, she ran along the corridor. Bursting into her quarters, she saw her lover stood, rather close to her in the entrance. He turned around and swept her up into his arms.

"Oh Be, I was terrified, I'm so glad it was me not you." He said, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Thank you, baby." She said, kissing him lovingly to show her appreciation.

He broke it off and looked deep into her eyes. "For what, do you really think I'm going to let anyone hurt you? I'd die before I'd let anyone touch my Be." He spoke softly into her hair, setting her down on her sofa, he sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Do you want me to walk you to Engineering tomorrow morning, first day back?" She looked up into his eyes. "As always." She said leaning into him further.

"That was a close call, any word from the Doctor about Lieutenant Paris?" Seven asked Harry quietly, as she said, shuffling in her seat.

"Yeah, he said that he is absolutely fine and back in his quarters, here ya go Cupcake." He said, handing her a plate of food. He sat down next to her on his sofa.

"Cupcake?" Seven questioned.

"Yeah, it's a nickname. Couples use them for each other." He said, twirling some spaghetti onto his fork.

"Like Lieutenant Torres call Lieutenant Flyboy, and Lieutenant Paris calls Lieutenant Torres babe?" Seven replied, unsure of herself.

"Yeah, exactly, you'll notice nobody else calls them this, it's their own nicknames for each other. My nickname for you is Cupcake, I won't call anyone else Cupcake, it's special to you." He said, shovelling a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth. Seven sat and smiled as she thought that she was 'special'. That's something she had never been when she was in the collective, she was just another drone, and average Borg.

"What shall I call you then?" She asked, coping Harry's movement. This was the first time she had eating spaghetti.

He swallowed his food and looked at her, wiping sauce off from under her mouth. "That's up to you, you can come up with any nickname you like, but it has to be different, you can't use the same as some else." Seven though about it, concentrating hard.

"How about….. one?" She spoke softly after swallowing her food.

"One?" Harry asked quite offended, but trying not to show it.

"Yes, because you are my one of one." She said leaning in and kissing him.

"I love it Cupcake." He said pouring her some wine and passing it to her.

"Thank you, one." She said, they clinked their glasses together and drank, staring into each other's eyes happily.


	8. Chapter 7

"Paris to Torres" He waited as the Comm line crackled.

"Torres here. What is it Paris?"

"I'm on my lunch break now, thought you might like a chat?"

"Aren't you sweet?" She said, listening to his footsteps. "Are you alone? It sounds really quiet."

"Yeah, in our quarters."

"Me, too. Just in my office. Everyone's on lunch break now, sorry I couldn't meet you for lunch, babe." She said sympathetically.

"It's alright, where did you say you were, your office?"

"Yeah. Why?" She looked out at the warp core and watched the swirling blue. "Torres to Paris, you still there?"

"Right here." She turned around to find her partner had done a sight to sight transport with a picnic. She tapped off her Comm link and hugged him tight. "Hey you, busy day?" Tom asker her, intently.

"Yes. Very Busy." She pulled back out of his hug and looked around at what had also arrived. "What's all this then?" She asked, while returning to her work.

"Well, I thought we could have lunch together and I could help you with your work? I brought a little picnic?" He said wrapping his arms around her waist as she worked.

"Well, I guess we could but I only have five minutes and then you have to go." She looked up at him, then continued her work. She listened as he walked over to the picnic basket he brought with him, pulled out a sandwich and handed it to her, and she accepted it and started eating. The two ate in silence, and Paris packed up the blanket and food fairly quickly. He gave her a kiss on the back of her head.

"I'll get going and leave you to your work. I'll see you later." He said, as he faded out in a collection of blue particles. She spun round to say goodbye but he had already gone. A pang of guilt washed over her as she realised how badly she had just treated her partner, he had made her lunch and brought it to her because she was busy, and she didn't even talk to him, she just brushed him off.

"Torres to Paris." She listened but there was no reply. She repeated it again.

"Paris here." She could hear in his voice how upset he was and she felt even worse. "I'm on my way back to the Bridge now, can't talk, it is important?" He sounded so formal, as if they weren't even a couple, or even friends.

"No its okay, it can wait, I'll see you tonight?" She said hopefully into the Comm line.

"Err, sorry I can't, I'm going to the Holo-Deck with Harry. I'll be back by 2100 hours though."

"Okay, see you later then." She tapped off the Comm link and returned to her work.

"Bridge." Tom inputted into the computer.

"Wait, Tom." He saw Harry dashing round the corner, he hopped into the lift. "How was lunch with B'Elanna then?" He asked as the doors hissed shut. The quiet humming began.

"Fine. Do you want to go to the Holo-deck tonight? I have some time booked in." He asked, trying not to give away the fact that lunch with B'Elanna had not gone 'fine'.

"Yeah, sounds great, just got to let Seven know." He said tapping his Comm badge. "Kim to Seven of Nine." He looked around to see his friend tapping at a PADD.

"Seven here, hey one."

"One?" Paris said to himself in the background.

"Hey Cupcake." Harry replied, a broad smile on his face.

"Cupcake?!" Paris retorted, louder this time.

"Who is with you?" Seven asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Just Tom, don't worry." Harry replied, glaring at his friend.

"Okay, what did you require?" She said, slightly more at ease.

"I am going to the Holo-deck with Tom, but I'll meet you at Astrometrics by 2000 hours?"

"Okay, bye one."

"Bye Cupcake." He said, tapping his badge. He turned back to his friend, who was looking at him, doing his impression of Tuvok's Vulcan eyebrow raise.

"You and Seven then, eh?" Tom said as the lift came to a stop.

"Yeah, we got together a couple of days back."

"Mhhm." Tom replied walking out of the Turbolift.

"What does 'Mhhm' mean?" Harry questioned uneasily.

"It means 'Mhhm'." Tom said, sitting down at the Helm. He threw one of his typical 'Tom Paris smiles' at him, before continuing his work.

"So, Harry, what programme do you want to run, thanks to you we only have half an hour?" Tom said, scrolling through a list. "In fact, do you want to rearrange to tomorrow evening?" He said turning to find Harry tapping away at a PADD.

"Yeah, tomorrow would be much better, thanks." He said, turning on his heel and making his way quickly towards the turbo lift. Tom jogged up behind him. They stood in silence until Tom got off first, Harry still in the lift.

"See ya' tomorrow Harry." Tom shouted over his shoulder. His friend gave a quick nod in return. He walked quickly along the corridor and stopped just short of his quarters doors. He stopped and prepared himself for what was to come. Would B'Elanna be mad, upset, blank him? He hated it when this happened. He walked close enough for the doors to open and step inside. He took off his Comm badge and placed it on the counter, kicking his boots into the corner. He stepped quietly across the dimly lit room and walked into his bedroom, and over to his bed. He sat down on the edge and began to undress, getting changed into his pyjama pants. He never wore the tops, B'Elanna liked to wear them, she said she enjoyed the smell of him on the clothes. He heard the doors swish open and closed, and he walked through he saw her wiping her eyes.

"Oh no, Be, what happened?" He ran up and hugged her spinning her around once and then putting her back down, but she clung to his neck and sobbed onto his bare shoulder. Tom hadn't seen her cry like this in a long time. "Be, what's wrong? Who hurt you?" A look of anger appeared on his face. "Who hurt you, tell me Be, because they are gonna regret it, you haven't cried like this in so long, they must have-"

"No one hurt me Tom, I hurt you, I pushed you away before when you brought me lunch and I'm so sorry, I had such a bad day and I shouldn't have been so rude to-" She was cut off by Tom kissing her lustfully, she pressed into him deeply. He picked her up and carried her through into their bedroom. He set her down and she looked into his eyes, watching the sparkles in them.

"I love you, Be. Remember how much you pushed me away before we became a couple. I loved you then and I love you now, one busy lunch time isn't gonna change that!" She finished changing into his pyjama top and walked over into his hug. He grazed his lips against hers, before kissing her down the side of her neck. She moaned in happiness, before returning the favour, she kissed along his bare chest and neck until reaching his chin where she bit his cheek, drawing blood.

She kissed through the blood and he reached his hands down to around her waist and lifted her up to where she straddled him. He rubbed up and down her sides, while they kissed passionately. He threw the two of them down onto her bed and pinned her, grinning at her in his special kind of way. He pinned her hands above her head and she let out a slow deep growl, before flipping him over, pinning him.

He threw her off and jumped up into a defensive position, she lunged at him, knocking him down, they rolled around on the floor, fighting and kissing. Tom stood up and readied himself again. She stood up too and threw him into a wall. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in close. She kissed him violently and they rolled along the wall in each other's arms, banging as they went. Whoever was in the quarters next door wasn't too pleased listening to them, they banging on the wall and shouted.

"Shut up, _petaQ_!" B'Elanna said, returning to kissing her lover. He picked her up in his arms and began to walk, but she jumped off just as they reached the bed and spun around behind him, she pushed him down on the bed, she jumped at him but he rolled out of the way, flipping over and pinning her. He leaned down and kissed her roughly.

=/\=

B'Elanna woke in the middle of the night turned over to look at Tom, he was sleeping soundly. He had his arms wrapped around her, she gently untied herself from his arms and padded over to the replicator. She heard him awake and got him some water too. She padded back over and handed it to him. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"Thanks, babe." He said sipping at his water.

"Did I wake you?"

"It's okay. I need to talk to you." He said putting his drink on the night stand. She turned around and sat in front of him, sweeping her fringe out of her face. "Look, I'm just going to come right out and say this, no point in small talk." He took a deep breath. "Do you want to have a kid with me?" He let out a sigh of relief, and then he was sprayed with water as she spluttered, choking. He waited patiently as she gathered herself.

"DO I WANT TO _WHAT_!?" She asked, throwing her glass across the room and watching it knock off a picture of the two of them.

"Be, calm down. It was just a suggestion." Tom said trying to reach for her.

"Calm down. CALM DOWN! I don't think so. We aren't even married yet and you want to have a _baby_?! Just a suggestion. Having a baby Tom is not just a suggestion, it's a lifetime commitment. I DO NOT want to have a baby with you. In fact, do you know what? This marriage was wrong too. I will not have a baby with you, I will not marry you, and we are over." She panted heavily after being on her rant and she punched him swiftly in the face, causing him to fall unconscious.

She reached across the nightstand, still fuming and tapped her Comm badge. "Lieutenant Torres to Sickbay." She waited for his reply.

"Sickbay here."

"Doctor, beam Tom to Sickbay." She got back in her bed after he disappeared and stared at the ceiling until she fell asleep.

"Mummy!" A small voice shouted from across thesand. "Mummy, mummy, mummy!" She looked around and saw Tom Paris spinning around a small child in his arms. He put her down as she approached and he pulled her into a kiss. The child ran away and she and Tom watched as she sat down with her brother. Tom picked her up and spun her around as well. He put her down and kissed her deeply looking into her eyes.

They sat down together on a small picnic blanket and he made her a glass of champagne. They clicked their glasses together and drank, she leaned over and he wrapped his arm around her. They laid back and stared up and the clouds, listening to their little twins playing in the water together. She took off her jumper and pants, wading into the warm water. She swam across the small river to the other side, climbing out and sitting down. She waved her husband across and he followed, with a champagne bottle. He lay on the warm sand next to her. Talking about irrelevant things, watching their kids playing. She felt complete, she had a perfect family.

"I'm so glad we're together, Be." He swept her hair off her face and kissed along her forehead ridges. She hated when people looked at them, never mind touched them, but she loved when he did it. She looked at the ring on his finger and noticed she had one too. She called the children to pack up the basket, and they ran across the bridge carrying it together. She picked up her small daughter and he heisted up their son up onto his shoulders. Her son dug his hands into fistfuls of Tom's hair. Tom wrapped one arm around his wife's waist and held onto one of his baby boy's feet. She picked up the picnic basket in her spare hand and they walked towards their home and-

B'Elanna woke in a cold sweat. She suddenly felt cold and realised she had kicked off the cover. She rolled over and pulled the whole cover up to her chin. Her bed felt cold. She felt awful for what she had done. After that dream, she felt like her life was empty. She didn't even have Tom anymore, she'd screamed at him, insulting him and….oh god….. she'd punched him. She scrambled around for her Comm badge.

"Lieutenant Torres to sickbay."

"Sickbay here." The Doctor didn't sound very happy with her.

"Is Tom okay?" She asked, the Doctor heard the worry in her voice. He sighed into the Comm badge.

"Yes, he's fine. The punch isn't what's bothered him. He is extremely fatigued, from crying, he also has sore eyes, from crying, and he is extremely depressed. He is also extremely dehydrated, from cry-"

"I get it Doc." She cut the EMH off, a pang of guilt washed over her body, and she couldn't shake it off. "So whe…..where is he?" She could barely speak through her tears.

"He's at Ensign Kim's quarters." The Doctor stopped beeping at his console. "He said you two, broke up." The Doctor was hesitant to say it.

"Doctor, I have to go. Can I come by tomorrow?" B'Elanna asked into the Comm link quietly.

"Yes Lieutenant, may I ask what for?"

"I need to get my birth control terminated."

"But I thought you and Mr Paris broke up?" He inquired.

"We did. I'll be there at 0800, before work. See you then." She tapped off her Comm link and sat up, no chance she would be able to sleep tonight.

B'Elanna walked back into her quarters and tripped over a box. She looked around and saw someone moving around in her bedroom. "Hello? Can I help you?" She walked through to see Tom packing a box with his clothes.

"Sorry Be, err…B'Elanna, err...Lieutenant Torres. I was just packing up all my stuff, I'll get out of your way qui-" She winded him by running into his arms in tears. He wrapped his arms around her, but not in his usual loving way, his arms hung loosely, like they did when they were just friends, years back.

"Oh Tom, honey, I'm so sorry." She said, sobbing into his chest. She reached up and ran her fingers along the large bruised patch on his face. "I'm sorry about how I reacted, I shouldn't have said those things to you, or broke up with you, or called off our wedding, and I, I really do want to have children, and with you Tom. It just shocked me." She couldn't continue anymore. She felt his grip tighten around her, and he buried his face into her hair.

"No, baby, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sprung that on you in the middle of the night, I have just, been thinking about it for a while. He looked down at her. Do you still want to cancel the wedding and stay….separated?" He asked, feeling the lump in his throat getting worse. He could barely speak.

"Oh God no, I could barely manage one night without you. I don't know how I ever breathed without you, never mind stay away from you." She leaned up and kissed him. "Last night was one of the worst nights of my life." And I, err…. I err…." She hesitated.

"You what?" He urged, kissing the ridges on her forehead.

"I, I terminated my birth control today." She finished, leaning into him. She felt his whole body tense up. "Are you okay?" She looked up into his eyes to see him crying. He just nodded in response on kissed her passionately. He picked her up and spun her around. She felt like it did in her dream. She loved it.

"So what made you take me back then?" He asked, wiping away her tears and stroking her hair.

"I had this dream last night. It was me and you, and we had got married and had twins. One boy, one girl. And we were at this small river, a sandy beach on either side. We were having a picnic, and we were just lying together. It made me feel, complete." She let go of him and started to unpack the box he had.

"So you want me to stay then? He cooed, wrapping his arms around her waist. She turned while still in his arms and kissed him.

"No, I want us to get married and be a proper family. I want you to be here with me always. I want us to have kids and be together, always." She pushed the box onto the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down onto the bed.

"I will. I'll always be here Be." He rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow to face her. "What date do you want to hold the ceremony?" He said standing up and putting the last of his clothes back into the drawers from the floor.

"Next week." She sounded uncertain, but confident at the same time.

"Next week? Are you sure you're ready?" He asked sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Oh I'm absolutely sure. I found this a couple of days ago and replicated it." She reached under the bed and pulled out a long, cream white dress, she also pulled out a pair of lace gloves and a veil. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she touched across the silky material. He pulled her into his arms and held her there, whispering how much he loved her into her ears.

"What do you want me to wear then?" He asked as she stopped crying. She pulled out another outfit. It was a black tuxedo, a white shirt and a blue bowtie. "I chose blue because it matches your eyes she said softly, still crying a little. He looked at the outfit in front of him, then hung both of them up on the outside of their wardrobe. "Next week it is. Now, we'd both better get to work or we're going to be late." He held out his hand as he stood up, she took it and they walked out of the room, hand in hand, discussing their wedding.


	9. Chapter 8

The Captain and Chakotay were on the way to the Captain's quarters and the doors swished open and swished closed behind them, drowning out the noise from the corridors. Kathryn looked around to see the whole room dimmed out with candles and a love heart bed. "Chakotay, did you do this?" She asked suspiciously.

"No, it looks just like it did when Q wa-"

"Hello Kathy." Q said walking out of her bathroom. "Chuckles." He sneered, turning his attention back to her. "Do you like it?" He walked closer to her, as to which she backed off. "Don't back away, I've come back for you, we can be together now. She backed off even further and walked straight into Chakotay, who wrapped his hands around her waist, making it clear that she was his, not Q's. "Oh, so you're with Chuckles now, eh?" He stared directly past her and snarled at him. "Not for long." He said, clicking his fingers once, making everything return to normal, and again, causing him to disappear. They could still feel his presence in the room. She turned around and kissed Chakotay passionately, he kissed her back.

"Can you believe we have got to struggle with this again?" He said laughing gently, letting go of Kathryn.

"It's giving me a headache, already, that must be his record!" She laughed along with him, rubbing her temples. Chakotay walked over a sat on her sofa, stretching his arm out along the back, in his silent way of asking her to sit with him. She accepted. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arm around her.

"What do you wanna do about Q then?"

"I…I don't know." Kathryn sighed, getting up and heading over to the replicator for a new coffee.

"I'll tell you what you should do, you should come with me, I'm superior, I actually deserve your love." Q clicked his fingers, taking all three of them to the 18th Century. Kathryn ran across the balcony she was on, but someone caught her arm, she spun around to see Q. He was dressed in ancient style clothing, as was she. She peered over the balcony to see Chakotay, locked in the stacks.

"Why am I here? Why are WE here?!" Kathryn indicated towards Chakotay as she spoke. "STOP THIS!" Q clicked his fingers again, but this time they were in a large manor. She was dressed in a large gown, and he was dressed in a smart suit. Then her partner was dragged in, he dropped to his knees, only supported by the two henchmen either side of him.

"Chakotay!" Kathryn ran over and draped her arms around his neck, sobbing. She cupped his head in her hand and moved it side to side, he had been beaten severely, and he could barely open his eyes. His head fell limply to the left and he was pulled to his feet.

"Kathryn…" Chakotay muttered, earning him a kick in the gut from the man on his right.

"Why are you doing this to us?!" Kathryn let tears roll down her face.

"Take him to the dungeons." Q blanked her and watched as Chakotay was dragged away.

"I said, WHY are you doing this?!" Kathryn picked up a vase and threw it across the room at Q, it hit him directly in the back of the head. "Why are you doing this?" She picked up a lamp. But Q snapped his fingers and they were down in the dungeons, across from Chakotay's cell.

"Don't you see, Kathy? Don't you see how much better of a life you would have with me? I'll show you the sort of life you would have with Chuckles over there, then I will return you to your ship." She eyed him suspiciously. "I promise on my powers." He rolled his eyes and clicked his fingers. Kathryn was in a small cottage house. She had three small children, and Chakotay. She was cooking dinner in a small alley kitchen. Chakotay walked through the door and planted a kiss on her head.

"Smell delicious Kat, what is it?" He hung his hat and jacket on the hooks.

"Sausage and mash." She laid out four plates and called out for their two children. Q rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, returning the three of them to her quarters.

"Is that really the life you want?" Q demanded.

"I don't care what life I have, as long as I'm with Chakotay." Kathryn snapped back, looking around for him. "Where is he?"

"He's in the ship somewhere, I'll return him after our conversation. You could have such an amazing life with me Kathy, why have him, what does he have that I don't." He sat down on her sofa, doing his best to look innocent, and failing.

Kathryn blinked at him in shock. "What does he have you don't? WHAT DOES HE HAVE YOU DON'T! He is a loyal, faithful, kind, loving, compassionate man, you are a selfish, lousy, cheap man that tries to pick up women by impressing them by making their partners look bad. Chakotay is the best man I've ever met, and if I am ever lucky enough, lucky enough that he is still interested in me, that I do ever get to marry him and have a life like that, I would choose that any day to being a rich, famous woman that lives in a mansion with you. Can you just get out of my life, Chakotay is who I want to be with, not you." She finished, trying to catch her breath after her rampage. A warm pair of arms slipped around her waist. She turned around and looked at her lover, tears were brimming in his eyes.

"Oh Chuckles, you finally made it." Q quipped. "Fine Captain, if that's how you feel, I'll just…leave you alone then." He said coldly, disappearing from the room. Chakotay walked through to her bedroom, and putting on some bed wear.

"Kat, do you really feel that way?" Chakotay asked softly, walking back through. "Y'know, about me being the best thing in your life and all those things that describe me, and, being lucky enough to... marry me?" Chakotay blushed slightly, but noticed she had blushed more.

"Oh, yeah. I meant every word. I never thought I would have to say it, but, it's true." She broke off the eye contact between them, but he pushed her face back to his so their eyes met again.

"Do you want…to…marry me?" Chakotay asked, holding her gaze.

"Is this a…" She swallowed, trying hard not to cry. "A…proposal?" She let a tear trickle down her face.

He pulled out a paper clip from her drawer and one of her earrings from her beside cabinet, making them into a ring. "Yeah, I guess it is." He got down on one knee in front of her and held the 'ring' out to her. She nodded numbly, too happy for words. He slipped it onto her finger and took her into a long kiss.

"Good morning. I made breakfast." B'Elanna chirped.

"Morning to you too. Why have you made breakfast, and why does the room look like this?" Tom rubbed sleep from his eyes while looking around at the room full of boxes.

"Well. Firstly, I got up early and we are getting married next week, I thought I should be a bit more wife-y. And secondly, go take a look in the room we used to store all this junk." Tom chuckled and shook his head, wandering across to the room, and he poked his head in.

"B'Elanna, it's empty?"

"No it's not…well… yes, it is, but have a look in the corner behind the last few boxes. Ensign Wildman site-to-site transported me all this baby stuff, how great is that." B'Elanna finished, watching Tom go through it all.

"Babe, it's great, but I thought you didn't want anyone to know we were trying to have a baby?" He turned around to see B'Elanna holding out a plate to him and a mug of tea.

"I didn't tell her."

"Well I didn't."

"I know, she just said, since we were getting married, we might want to start a family, which we do, but she doesn't know that, and to consider it an early wedding present. I couldn't exactly say no. We can make it into a nursery." B'Elanna said while eating.

"Great. But what are we going to do with all that stuff out there?" Tom said. "And…don't we need special intervention or something for us two to be able to have a child?" B'Elanna nodded as she wiped baked bean sauce off her lovers chin. "When should I book it in for?"

"Sometime after the wedding? We have enough on our minds already with planning it all never mind…" She was cut off by Janeway's voice over the Comm line;

"We are approaching an M-Class planet. We will be there in approximately four six days. You will have a little bit of shore leave, only for three or four days I suspect. The inhabitants of this planet are Palonians and the planet is called Palonia. There are market places, parks, restaurants. It is very much like earth, probably the most similar we have come across before. Janeway out."

"That sounds great, don't you think?" B'Elanna asked, tidying the dishes away into the recycler.

"It does, now let's start sorting through these boxes, we can't have them filling up the living room."

"Chakotay, get Neelix, Ensign Kim, Seven, Tuvok and yourself to the briefing room, quickly." The Captain glanced over to him and gave him a nod.

"Shouldn't I get Lieutenant Paris and Lieutenant Torres too?" He questioned in response.

"Nope." She crossed the bridge towards the ready room, and Chakotay watched as she went.

"Chakotay to Ensign Kim, Tuvok, Neelix and Seven of Nine. Respond." He listened into the quiet buzzing of the Comm line.

"Neelix here Commander, what is it?"

"Hold on Neelix, let me just get a hold of everyone else, is Harry, Seven or Tuvok in the Mess hall right now?"

"Tuvok is playing a game of _Kal-Toh _over here, but not Harry or Seven. Sorry Commander. But, I can say I might know where Harry is. He came in last night with Seven for dinner, they make quite a cute couple don't you think? They might not be the most conventional of cou-"

"Neelix, were in a rush here, back to the point." Chakotay shook his head at his own thoughts.

"Oh, right. Sorry Commander. Harry said he was helping Seven, but he didn't mention what with or where. Was there something I can help you with Commander?"

"Yes, get yourself and Tuvok over to the briefing room. I'll find Seven and Harry. Chakotay out." He rolled his eyes and stared out into the stars flying past them on the view screen. "Computer, locate Ensign Kim and Seven of Nine."

"Crewmember ensign Kim and Seven of Nine are in Astrometrics." Chakotay sighed. "Astrometrics, respond." He waited, but there was no reply. "Astrometrics, respond!"

"Seven of Nine here, what do you require?"

"Well, finally, what why didn't you and Harry answer you're Comm badge? What were you doing?"

"We were….erm…working?" Chakotay could hear Seven shuffling around.

"Yes, I'm sure you were, but guys, now it's awkward for any of us to go in there. Don't do it in a public place again please. Now get yourselves down to the briefing room. NOW! Chakotay out." He crossed the Bridge towards the briefing room, smiling at several crewmembers who had blushed at the topic of that conversation.

"So as I was saying, we were all ju-" The Captain was cut off by the final two members of the team entering the briefing room. "Nice of you to join us, take a seat." The Captain smiled at the two as they entered, to let them know she was joking. "Right, I bet your all wondering why you're here, and why Tom and B'Elanna are not with us." She watched as heads around the table nodded slowly. "Well, let's talk about their wedding shall we?" Several people leaned over the table, looking enthusiastic. "They have informed me, they will be getting married next week, so, are we doing Hen nights, Bachelor parties? They have also told me their wedding will be on the Holodeck. So, what are we going to do about a honeymoon, or after party?" The Captain looked around at the happy faces around the table.

"What about, the Hen night and Bachelor party on the Holodecks? It means we can have any setting we want."

"I like it Harry, and what about the after party on the planet we are approaching, I'm sure the people there wouldn't mind?" The Captain was jotting all this information down into a PADD.

"Kath-, Captain, why don't we let them have a honey moon down on the planet, I looked into the readings we picked up, and we could get resources and supplies, while they take a week's honeymoon down there? We could land and do repairs?" Chakotay brought up information on his PADD and passed it to her.

"I like that too." She reached her hand subtly across the table and placed it on his, giving it a small squeeze before taking it away. "Now, let's talk details…"


	10. Chapter 9

"Well, you know him better, you should." B'Elanna exclaimed.

"Yeah but I stayed with Harry last time."

"What do you mean last time? We have never been married before?!"

Tom sighed. "I meant last time we had a fight."

B'Elanna prepared herself to retaliate but stopped when she saw the Captain stepping into the Turbolift.

"So what are you two fighting about?" She asked, as the doors closed.

"We decided that on the night before the wedding we would sleep separately, and not see each other until the ceremony." Tom started.

"So one of us has to sleep in Harry's Quarters, but we think it's too big a decision to just flip a coin, or play rock-paper-scissors." B'Elanna finished for him. "So we don't know what to do." The couple looked at the Captain expectantly and she laughed.

"Why don't you, have an I-love-you-more contest." The Captain beamed at her idea.

"A what?" Tom ask, bewildered.

"A love contest. Me and Mark did it all the time when it came to decisions. You get a friend to keep score, so for you guys Harry, and up until the night you compete doing really romantic gestures and Harry add up the points. If, for example, Tom is making dinner, and he replicates a roast dinner, Harry might rate that a four out of 10 so Tom gets four points. But if B'Elanna makes dinner and hand makes Tom a pizza, Harry might rate it an eight and B'Elanna gets eight points. At the end whoever has the most points, wins." The Captain walked out onto the Bridge and took her seat as B'Elanna and Tom stood just off the Turbolift finalising with Harry their new way to settle the decision.

"Be?" Tom asked, carrying roses through the doors.

"Yeah?" B'Elanna's reply came from another room, he made his way over but B'Elanna popped her head out of the door. "Don't come in yet." She said, ducking back inside. Tom waited patiently, after arranging the deep-red flowers in a vase and taking his shoes and jumpsuit off, leaving him stripped down to his undershirt and underpants. "Okay, you can come in now." Tom walked across the room but stopped at the doorway, he couldn't see B'Elanna anywhere, and there wasn't many places to hide, seeing as there was no furniture.

"Where are y-" He stopped mid-sentence after she did a site-to-site transport, directly into a kiss. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held one of her hands, pushing her up against the nearest wall, just like their first kiss. They stayed like this for a while, uninterrupted by the doctor this time, before he broke it off and looked around. "Be, did you do all this?" Tom asked, astounded at what he saw.

She stuck her hands in her pockets and leaned back into him. "Yeah, do you like it?" She asked, turning her head up to look at him.

"I love it babe, when did you do all this, you only got off duty an hour before me?" Tom said, admiring all the new baby furniture in the nursery.

"I got some help building it all, and I'm storing it all in Cargo Bay 2 with Seven until we have decorated it, I thought you might like to decorate it tonight?" She looked up at him hopefully.

"I'd love too, I have already pulled up some paint colour ideas on my PADD and I've replicated some brushes and rollers." She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him. "Are you okay?" Tom asked, apprehensively, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and kissing the top of her head lovingly. She didn't reply, he walked her out of the room into their bedroom and sat her down on the bed, she just sat in his arms. "Be, are you okay, what's up?" He asked, giving her a little shake.

"Tom?" She asked after a few seconds.

"Yeah?" He replied comfortingly, hugging her tighter. He lay down, and she followed, lying her head on his chest.

"Why are you with me, when you could have any woman on this ship, when you have so much to offer, your so kind and sweet, romantic and funny, not to mention so handsome, but why are you with me, of all the girls who would do anything to be with you. You pursued me for so long before I finally let you in, and I'm so much to cope with, why?" She looked up at him but he was dumbfounded.

"Why….am I….with you?" He sounded confused. He felt her head nod against his chest. "Because I'm in love with you, B'Elanna." He replied, sitting back up and propping himself up against the bedhead, pulling her up onto his knee.

"Yeah but, why do you love me. I don't deserve you, yet you love me anyway, I'm so mean and argumentative and I never do anything romantic or loving for you, I'm home late for dinner half the time and you always do romantic things for me, and…and…" She faded out, looking up at him desperately for an answer. He leaned down and kissed her pulling her into him tighter.

"None of that matters to me. I don't care if you're late home, or if you argue with me, I don't care that you don't do romantic things for me, all I care about is you being here with me. You deserve so much better than me Be, I'm just some idiot, who, around a decade ago, was willing to sell out the marquis to get out of prison, so every day that I have with you I'm grateful for, I go to bed each night with you in my arms wondering what I did to deserve you. The question is, why do you love me, Be?" She looked up at him and ran her hand down the side of his face.

"Oh Tom, I love you, for being you. You're so cocky, and funny, and romantic, you're handsome, and annoying and sexy, your kind, and loving, and so caring. I've never had a partner who would just sit and listen to my problems or arrive at my work with a picnic because I don't have time for lunch. You're so clever, and strong and you love me for me, not me for being a Klingon mate prize, you love me, and I love you, and don't ever let me go, Tom, don't ever leave me, please." She looked up at him and let the tears that had been building in her eyes run down her face, he was already crying.

"Never, I'm never letting you go no matter what, Be. You're the most precious thing in this world to me, I'd die before letting you go, before letting you get harmed." B'Elanna turned around and sat in his lap, leaning back into him. He wrapped an arm around her waist and brushed her hair off her neck, placing kisses gently along it, until her reached the bottom of her face, she turned around and kissed him. "I don't say it enough Be, but I want you to know how much I love you. I love you." He said, kissing her again. She broke it off and looked deep into his eyes, turning around and sitting in front of him.

"I love you too, but I love you more!" She said, laughing slightly.

He sat up fully and wrapped an arm around her, quickly pulling her back down. "That's not possible, there isn't words for how much I love you, no one loves any else anywhere, ever as much as I love you." With that said he kissed her intensely, and she kissed back, stronger. He broke it off by sliding her off to next to him and grabbing data PADD. "Seeing as were painting the room before we know what gender the baby is going to be, I thought we should paint it yellow?" Tom passed her a PADD and she looked at it briefly and handed it back.

"Whatever colour you want flyboy, I know I'll love it." She took the PADD back out of his hand and send the data over to the replicator, she watched as two buckets of paint replicated, she stripped down to her underwear and threw her uniform into the refresher. "Did you replicate something to wear while we paint, I don't wanna get any paint on my clothes?" She said while carrying the paint and all the equipment through. "Tom?"

"Yeah, here." He was directly behind her and it shocked her.

"You scared me!" She said, swinging a punch at his shoulder, but he grabbed it and kissed her instead. He handed her his pyjama top and she pulled it on. "You'll have to get new pyjamas out later, these are gonna get filthy." B'Elanna tried to open a can of paint but couldn't, so Tom took the can, opened it and handed it to her. She poured some out into a roller-tray, covered it in paint and created a large patch of colour on the utterly grey walls. "I'll do this one and you do that one?" She suggested, handing him a roller and a tray of paint.

"Okay, we'll meet up in the middle there and do the end one together." He carried the tray over and began work. After a few minutes Tom began to think it was rather quiet. "Computer, play music Paris-Alpha-Two" Quiet music began to play and B'Elanna began to hum along. "Recognise it?" He questioned her playfully.

"The song selection from our first date. I would never forget it." She responded quietly.

After a while the whole room was painted a beautiful pale yellow and Tom was painting the ceiling a very dark blue. He had special stickers that looked like a night sky, he had finished just after B'Elanna had finished in the shower. "Be, come look, I finished it!" She wandered through and she was captivated by how beautiful it looked.

"You're a real handyman aren't you?" She replied hugging him and looking around. "Let's get the furniture in then?" She began programming the site-to-site transport and waited as is materialised. All the furniture was white and shiny, they arranged it with the crib in the corner, and a small sofa-chair next to it. Tom attached the mobile to the wall and tested it, watching as the mini-voyagers span round and round, while quiet music played. A small table was set up at the other side of the crib with two baby monitors on. Against the opposite wall was a small set of drawers, ready to be filled with baby clothes. Next to it was a baby-changer, with more drawers underneath, filled with wipes, nappies and talc powder. Once all the furniture had been arranged, Tom stuck up all the wall stickers, one above the crib with a short lullaby written on, one above the baby changer with _'Clean and tidy, makes a happy baby!' _written on and one on the door saying _'Shhh! Baby sleeping in here!' _Finally, Tom hung up a large, empty holo-picture frame. "What's that for, sweetie?" B'Elanna was puzzled as to why he had put up an empty frame.

"For a picture of us all once it's born." Tom replied softly, smiling at her. "Now, it's pretty late, let's get to bed." He took off the pyjama pants he had been wearing and threw them in the recycler as he walked past it, getting a new pair out the drawer and handing her the top.

B'Elanna awoke in the middle of the night, she reached across and got Tom's drink from nightstand, finishing it off, she placed it back where it was and sat up, watching him sleep. She loved watching him sleep, she thought he looked really attractive when he had just woken up, probably because he looked all rough and untidy. She gently placed a kiss on his lips, he didn't kiss her back, but he stirred a couple of seconds later, so she kissed him again. He kissed back this time but that wasn't the reply she wanted, she ran her hand along his bare chest under the cover, but he ignored her. Rather infuriated at his lack of response, she tore the cover off his chest and began to kiss her way down his chest, by the time she reached his naval she could see he was up for it through his pyjama pants, but he was playing hard to get, she looked and there was a slight smile on his face. She gently lifted his top off her body, which was the only thing she was wearing, and lay on his bare chest, she could tell it was getting hard for him to resist, especially by the feel of him pressing into her belly. She was really angry now. She bit his side hard, making him flinch, she licked the blood away, but still, he lay idle. She knew she had one last trick that might work. She lowered herself slightly and ground against him, she did this several times before being suddenly flipped over with her hands pinned above her head. She opened her mouth to speak but he delve down into a deep long kiss. He weakened for a second and she flipped him over taking off his pyjama pants and dumping them on the floor.

"I can't….believe….you woke me….up….for sex." He laughed, but she looked at him seriously and then broke out in a huge grin.

"Well flyboy, you look your best when you first wake up!" She retorted, as he flipped her back over and readied himself.

=/\=

Tom woke up in the morning, but B'Elanna wasn't there. He could hear the sound of the shower so he wandered through and watched her for a minute before she realised he was there. "Are you just watching me shower?" She quizzed, watching him blush and look to the floor. She turned off the shower and stepped out, he wrapped a towel around her and she held his hand they walked back through to the bedroom. "How long were you there?" She said dropping the towel and drying herself off.

"Not long, I'm barely awake."

"I know, you look really sexy, flyboy."

"As sexy as last night?" He teased, smirking.

"I'm so sorry by the way, I don't know what came over me." She said embarrassed.

"Don't be." He pulled her into a lustful kiss. Her fingers played with the red-blonde hair on his chest and ran her hands down her belly. He shivered as her hands reached their intended destination. How is it you have so-o-o many ways to get me but I only have a fe-ew to you." He panted for breath.

She pushed him down on the bed lay on top of him, watching as he panted, clearly desperate. It was her turn to play hard to get. She rolled off him, to his disappointment and walked away, smiling playfully. He jumped up and followed her through, she got a tub of jam out the fridge and put some bread in the toaster.

"You want some toast, flyboy." She grinned at him but he was still panting, trying to resist the urge to leap on her.

"No." He relied calmly.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I…want...you!" He said lustfully, glaring at her as she tapped her fingers next to the toaster, ignoring him like he had ignored her. She sat on a stool and spun around on it until her grabbed her thigh and stopped it. He ran his hand along her thigh and it sent shivers running down her body, she didn't know how long she could hold it up for.

"Well, what do you want for breakfast?!" She said impatiently. She could tell he was getting tired, and decided she wouldn't be able to hold off much longer anyway.

"You!" He roared, throwing her onto the sofa and pinning her. He opened the jam jar and smeared jam across her core, licking it of as she writhed underneath him, she kissed and licked the jam off his fingers until he met eye to eye with her.

"All…yours!" She panted, wrapping her legs around his waist.

=/\=

Harry arrived at Tom and B'Elanna's quarters, but they didn't reply. He tried to get their attention once more but it didn't work. He listened carefully, but wish he hadn't. He quickly backed away from the door and walked away, feeling like he had invaded an intimate time. He was on his way to the Mess Hall when the Captain stopped him. "Harry, let's talk." They walked along together for a minute before actually speaking. "I hear you've set up a betting pool on Tom and B'Elanna's 'I love you more' competition. Is that right?" She looked at him, pressing him for an answer.

"Er…er…yes, Captain…I…" Harry stammered. Fearful of being shouted at.

"Great, I'd like to place a bet." The Captain replied cheerfully, laughing at Harry's sigh of relief.

"On who Captain?" Harry asked, bringing up the records on his PADD.

"Tom."

"And how many point do you think he'll get?" Harry asked, typing down all the data.

"Er…28?"

"Okay, that's two replicator rations."

"I'll get them to you later." She said, walking over to join Chakotay at a table. Harry nodded in response, walking over to get some food.

"Hey Kat, what were you talking to Harry about?" Chakotay ate some more from his stack of pancakes and waited for a reply. She laughed and he fed her some pancake.

While Kathryn ate, she watched him get her a black coffee, just the way she liked it. He set it down just as she swallowed and kissed her lightly, sitting back down. "Harry's started a betting pool, on Tom and B'Elanna. Do you know about it?" She sipped her coffee.

"Yeah, I placed a bet early, on Tom." Chakotay said, eating more pancake.

"Me too." She sipped her coffee and helped herself do a knife and fork, sharing his pancakes.

"Hey Cupcake." Harry kissed Seven on the top of the head and sat opposite her.

"Hey. What happened with Lieutenant Torres and Lieutenant Paris?" She asked.

"They…er…were…" Harry stammered out.

"Copulating?" Seven said confidently.

"Yes." Harry blushed immensely, and ate his pancakes.

After finishing his pancakes he tidied away all the pots and walked back over to Seven. He linked his hand to her hand and they exited the mess hall.

"Do you want me to walk you to Astrometrics?"

"I am working in Engineering first. Are you on the Bridge?"

"Yeah. I'll walk you to Engineering."

"Cup-" Harry tried to speak but Seven was kissing him relentlessly. "Seven." The bluntness of his tone brought her to attention.

"Sorry One, I'll see you later. Love you!" She said walking through the doors to engineering, whilst Harry made his way to the Bridge.

Tom walked onto the bridge and the whole room went silent and looked at him. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked around.

"Mr. Paris, your 33 minutes late to your duty shift, as is Lieutenant Torres, and you've both received a warning for…your uniform." The Bridge remained silent as Tom straightened out his uniform, smoothed his collar, flattened his ruffled up, extremely messy hair and arranged his pins. He walked over to the helm and sat down, the chatter continued. After a while, Tom realised him and his lover were definitely the topic of the conversation.

"Captain, what do you mean I'm ahead?" Tom was puzzled and looked around for answers.

"Harry's betting pool." Chakotay replied.

"Betting pool for what?"

"You and B'Elanna's love contest." Chakotay laughed as Kathryn elbowed him.

"WHAT?!" Tom glared at Harry across the room, who busied himself. Tom calmly walked across the room and approached Harry. "Is my personal love life with B'Elanna something for you to make money off?"

"I…er…thought I would make some money? Err…I thought…I thought…I'm so sorry. Tom?" Tom stormed off the Bridge.

"Harry!" The Captain shouted across the Bridge. "You know the rules about betting, only if you had permission, you didn't even ask them?!" The Captain was very upset, especially seeing as she had placed a bet, unaware it was against their will.

Tom arrived at Engineering and stormed straight through, attracting everyone's attention. "Vorik! Where's B'Elanna" Tom roared across Engineering, silencing everyone.

"In her office, sir." Vorik looked down at his work and continued. Tom raged across the rest of Engineering and into B'Elanna's office.

"Computer, engage door locks authorization Paris Beta four."

"Doors are locked." The computer replied. Tom hit his back the far wall as B'Elanna came rushing, his sank his way down and landed with his hands in his head on the floor. She sat down next to him and pulled his head to lie in her lap. He lay down and breathed deeply to calm himself while she gently stroked his hair.

"Babe, what's wrong?" She looked down at him.

"I had a fight with Harry. Because he made our Love Contest into a bet. Now the whole ships knows about it and is betting on who will win." He stared at B'Elanna's angered face.

"Harry did that? HARRY?!" She screamed. He jumped up and held her tight in his arms until she had calmed down. "Why?" She held onto him tightly and buried her face into him.

"He wanted to make some money." They held each other for a while until someone was trying to get in. "Computer, unlock doors." Harry came stumbling in. Tom had his back to the door, but B'Elanna, with her head over his shoulder saw him and lunged at him, fortunately, Tom was holding onto her tight. He spun round to see the point of her anger and he was enraged. "You have the nerve to do what you did, then come down here? What do you want?!" Tom spat at him.

"I…I…I did it so I could buy you a wedding gift! I ran out of replicator rations and I was earning money to buy you a wedding gift." Harry stammered his words and stormed out.

"I can't believe him!" B'Elanna ran straight into Tom's arms, knocking him over backwards, to anyone else it would of hurt, especially when B'Elanna landed on top of him, but he was used to it, it no longer hurt. He lay on the floor with his arms around her. She sobbed into his chest and he kissed her cheek every time a tear ran past. She loved it when he did that, when she was upset, he would wipe away the tear and kiss the patch, then when she was done crying he would stroke her hair and make her dinner, or rock her to sleep, or even just play music and sit with her. "What are we going to do?" She said eventually. "Should we forgive him?" B'Elanna asked.

"I think we should just forget it, but it's not going to be the same for a long time, if ever. He violated our trust." They sat together for a long time.


	11. Chapter 10

**Day 1**

"I'm glad we worked things out with Harry." Tom said, holding his partner's hand.

"Yeah, me too. Still feels a bit awkward though, don't you think?" She questioned, returning his affections by wrapping her hand around his.

"Mh-hm." As the couple entered the mess hall, many eyes watched them as they walked towards the counter to get some breakfast. "Why is everyone staring at us?" Tom turned to see B'Elanna was just as puzzled as he was. "Neelix, why is everyone staring at us?" Tom asked the bustling chef as he passed by.

"Ah, Tom, B'Elanna, everyone is waiting to see if the love contest is still on, even though Harry took down the betting ring, everyone has still taken sides." Neelix looked at them, a look of sheer astonishment struck both their faces. They looked around and realised it had gone quiet while almost everyone waited for their answer. Tom pulled B'Elanna aside, out of anyone's earshot.

"What do we do?" B'Elanna asked frantically.

"Whatever you want to do, Be, I don't mind, you make the call." Tom kissed her forehead gently, then the tip of her nose while he waited for her answer. No one was looking at them anymore, and the noise had begun to get louder again.

"I think we should go through with it, I had some…ideas…planned." B'Elanna winked at Tom and walked over to explain to Neelix their decision. "But…Neelix, tell them after we have left, please." B'Elanna looked at him fiercely, and he nodded in response. She walked back over to her partner and entwined her fingers in his, leading him out the door. As they left they heard a loud cheering from the Mess Hall and realised Neelix had not hesitated to inform the crew of the decision.

"Hey, sorry I'm home late." B'Elanna kicked off her boots and walked straight into a hug from Tom.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." He guided her to sit down at the table, he had set out candles, and home cooked a beautiful meal. He sat down in the chair opposite and poured her a glass of wine. "You look tired, busy day?" Tom stated, carving the chicken and placing some on B'Elanna's plate.

"Like you wouldn't imagine. First, the Warp-Core starting fluctuating for no apparent reason, then three of the Gel-Packs burst and finally one of the systems in Jeffries Tube malfunctioned." She began devouring the meal in front of her, much like Tom, and they ate in silence. After the meal was finished, Tom carried B'Elanna through to the bedroom and they got changed, he then walked back through and to the Living Area and loaded up a couple of scary films, with popcorn, drinks. He took the cushions of the back of the sofa to make it bigger, then dragged the table in front. He placed a fluffy blanket over the back of the sofa to soften in and spread another blanket out over the entire new set up. It looked amazing. He heard B'Elanna finishing up in the kitchen and quickly gathered the quilts and pillows from bedroom and laid them out. He ran over and stood outside the door, just as she was coming out. "Hey." She leaned up and kissed him, again he picked her up and carried her over to the makeshift bed. "What's all this?" She said as she settled down under the covers, inviting him to join her.

"I thought we could watch some movies?" She nestled into him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled him close. It wasn't long into the second movie when Tom realised B'Elanna had fallen asleep in his arms, he turned off the TV and covered her up with the duvet. He rolled over and held her tight in his arms, he fell asleep soon after.

Tom awoke in the middle of the night with a start. He looked around to see that B'Elanna had rolled away from him in the night, he gently climbed out of the sofa-bed and padded across the room. B'Elanna stirred as he left, but Tom didn't notice, she rubbed her eyes sleepily and propped herself up on one elbow, watching as he went. She got up out of bed and followed him into the room he had gone to, she stood in the doorway for a few minutes before padding over to him, wrapping a blanket around herself and him.

"What's wrong, babe?" She tried to look into his eyes but they were clouded with tears. He looked around at her and placed a kiss on her forehead, hugging her close. She could sense something was wrong, Tom didn't often cry, but this was more than just a bad dream, something had really happened. "Babe, tell me what's wrong, don't cry, everything's okay." She murmured. She lay down and he lay next to her. He pulled her up on top of him and she lay on his chest for a while, listening to his steady heartbeat.

"Be?" Tom whispered, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry." He loosened his grip around her as she rolled off him and sat up.

"For…what?" She asked cautiously, her stomach tightening into knots.

"The way I treated you, before we became friends, even in the early stages of our friendship, how I sometimes still treat you." He replied, through sobs.

"What do you mean?" B'Elanna was extremely confused as to what had suddenly brought this on.

"I was, I am, such a lot to handle. I'm argumentative, I'm closed off, and I'm not very good at understanding…I'm a 'pig'…" Tom trailed off. B'Elanna swung a punch and hit him right in the shoulder. Hard. "OW! What was that for?!" Tom shouted angrily, rubbing his shoulder and sitting up to face her.

"For being such an idiot Tom. What the Hell brought all this on? Why are you suddenly apologizing? What happened?" She regretted what she did and shuffled over to him, she began to rub his shoulder but he pulled back and stood up, then he began pacing.

"I…I had this dream. It was at our wedding, but it went…wrong. As I was walking through the crowds everyone started saying things like 'I'm surprised you got a woman like B'Elanna to go out with you, never mind marry you' or 'you treat her so badly, you're going to be an awful husband' or 'you ca-"

"I get the point. But why would it make you so upset, it was just a bad dream, none of it's the truth." B'Elanna cut him off. He stared at her and went to sit next to her on the bed.

"But don't you see, it is true. I treated you so badly back then, I was so arrogant, and rude. And I'm always late home and I neve-" B'Elanna kissed him softly, but he deepened the kiss. After eventually breaking off the kiss, he cupped her face and stared deep into her eyes. "I am sorry. I will make it up to you, Be. I promise." He said, hoping she would accept his apology.

"You don't need to, I don't care who you were then, I care about who you are now, and to me, you're already perfect. You don't need to make anything up, you don't need to apologise, and I don't want you to change, I want you just the way you are." She smiled and kissed him, stronger this time, with more passion, he gently lifted the pyjama top she was wearing over her head and she removed his pants with great ease. He lowered her onto her back carefully and lovingly, he kissed along her forehead, down her nose to her lips. He kissed his way down her neck and along her core. He looked deep into her eyes and she pulled him down for another kiss.

=/\=

**Day 3**

Tom was sat at the helm when a message flashed up all over the screen. "Err..." Tom scanned around but quickly covered it up after realising what it was.

"Everything alright over there, Lieutenant?" The Captain asked, stepping up out of her chair.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine." He replied, while desperately trying to cover the screen. He turned back around and read what had flashed up on his control screen;

**_Hey FlyBoy! I've hacked into your controls, so now I can send you messages whenever I want! You can send them to me too, If we get caught though, were dead. I believe your lunch break is starting in a few minutes? Meet me in Jeffries Tube 21C. Hurry, hurry, hurry…_**

Tom's heart jumped in his throat. He send a short message back, she had attached a reply button, which was great because he didn't have a clue how she'd managed this.

******_Hey Babe! Check this out! Now I can actually look forward to going to work each day, knowing I'll be able to talk to you! I'm on my way, don't go anywhere…_**

"Captain, can I go for my lunch break, please. I really need to go." Tom pleaded. The Captain looked from Tom, to Chakotay, and then back to Tom.

"What's the sudden urgency?" She asked, sitting back in her chair, looking at him curiously.

"Something came up…I mean I need to go to Sickbay…I mean I just remembered something…" He looked at her hopefully and fidgeted around, unwilling to make eye contact.

"Sure..." She said, slightly confused. The whole crew on the Bridge watched in silence as Tom jogged to the Turbolift. He looked impatient enough even before the doors were closed. The Captain turned to Chakotay and raised an eyebrow suggestively. "What do you think was up with him?" Kathryn looked flabbergasted.

"I heard B'Elanna took an emergency lunch break much like that ten minutes ago, after finishing something she'd been working on all week. When Ensign Ayala tried to hack into what she'd been doing with Murphy and Niccoletti, she had encrypted it so they couldn't get in. I bet Tom didn't have time to encrypt it." The Commander jumped up and offered his arm hand to the Captain, he helped her up and they walked over to the helm. They spent twenty-five minutes looking through all the helm notices and eventually found;

**_Hey FlyBoy! I've hacked into your controls, so now I can send you messages whenever I want! You can send them to me too, If we get caught though, were dead. I believe your lunch break is starting in a few minutes? Meet me in Jeffries Tube 21C. Hurry, hurry, hurry…_**

After reading the message, and scrolling down a little further, they found;

******_Hey Babe! Check this out! Now I can actually look forward to going to work each day, knowing I'll be able to talk to you! I'm on my way, don't go anywhere…_**

"So? What do you think the punishment should be?" Chakotay asked, quitting off the messages on the helm and taking his seat next to The Captain.

"Well…we have to give them a proper punishment, but… we could also have them download this information to our data PADD's, so we can talk wherever, whenever…" She placed her hand gently on Chakotay's, and he wrapped his hand around hers.

"I like the sound of that, and what about… three days in the brig? Not too long, but enough to prove the point?" He looked across to her as she considered it.

"Okay. When Tom gets back I'll ask him to come into my ready room and ill inform him, you take both our data PADD's down to engineering, get the information and then take B'Elanna to the brig. Oh, and while we are on the topic of these two, I have spoken to the man in charge of the planet we are approaching, and they said they have a very high-maintenance star, or moon, or something orbiting their planet, but it's just a sandy beach world, very, very small, and normally one family at a time would book it out and spend time there. They said they would give it to Tom and B'Elanna for a week. They also said the rest of our crew could take shore leave on the main planet." Chakotay nodded as they took all this information in.

"Shall we brief the senior officers then?"

"Get them to the ready-room, I'll meet you in there." He watched as she walked to the ready room, looking around for someone to take over the responsibility for now. "Ensign, you have the bridge." He nodded to a young man as he padded over to the ready room.

"B'Elanna?" Tom shouted as he crawled through Jeffries Tube 21C.

"Here!" She shouted back to him. He began crawling in the direction she shouted from, he turned a corner to see a small picnic blanket, a bottle of champagne and several pizzas laid out.

"What's all this? It must have cost you a fortune of replicator rations." He admired the beautiful meal laid out in front of him.

"No actually, I had Neelix hand bake them, but don't worry, I only let him use Earth-Ingredients. There is no Leola-Root-Pizza. Although, he was thinking of serving that tonight in the Mess Hall." Tom chuckled as he pulled her into a kiss.

"What pizza do we have then?" He licked his lips in anticipation.

"Err… cheese and tomato, pepperoni and a chicken one. Is that okay?" B'Elanna asked cautiously, hoping she had chosen the right ones.

"Absolutely! Now, Champagne?" Tom pulled two glasses out of the basket she had and popped the cork off the bottle. He poured two glasses and handed her one, while he picked up a piece of pizza. She waited as he tasted it, she really wanted good feedback, she had made that one herself. "Wow. This is really good. I'm usually not fond of plain pizza, but I like this one!" Tom said, taking another bite.

"Oh, I'm so glad, I actually made that one myself. Neelix made the other two." She took a bite from a piece of chicken pizza.

After a while, they had both eaten until they were full. B'Elanna was packing the rest of the leftovers into a picnic basket, along with the champagne and picnic blanket. She initiated a site-to-site transport and sent them back to their quarters.

"We can have the rest later." She said, sitting next to him, leaning against the back wall. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him.

"Thank you. That was really sweet. By the way, any particular reason you chose this Jeffries Tube, or just a coincidence. It's just quite far from Engineering and the Bridge." He looked at her intently, waiting for her response.

"This is our tube, only we ever come in here, this is the first place we had a picnic, the first tube we were in where you told me you loved me, the first tube we were in when we first…slept together. This tube has a lot of memories. It's our tube." She looked up in to his ocean blue eyes, melting as he met her gaze.

"Good. I wasn't sure if you had remembered." He kissed her, but it soon grew more passionate. B'Elanna moved onto Tom' lap and ran her fingers through his hair, ruffling it up and making it scruffy, She loved it when it was scruffy. He placed gentle kisses along her neck, then kissing her again.

Tom re-entered the Bridge and silence fell across everyone. All eyes turned to him and he blushed profusely. He smoothed down his hair and brushed the dust off his pants. He continued his walk towards the Helm.

"Tom?" He gritted his teeth and turned to face his Captain.

"Yes?" He mustered up as much enthusiasm as he could find, trying not to sound annoyed.

"My ready room please. Chakotay." She gestured towards the said room and made her own way towards it. Once in the ready room, Tom found himself sat down, but his commanding officers peering over him. "Now Tom… We found this on the helm after you left." Chakotay placed a PADD down in front of him with a picture on it. His eyes widened as he saw it and he began shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"I…err…we…I mean..." Tom couldn't find his words and averted his eyes from the picture.

"Tom, it's okay. We are going to allow you to keep and use this, but, to try and follow Star Fleet regulations, I am going to have to sentence you to three days in the Brig, B'Elanna too." Tom closed his eyes and breathed deeply. 'Wow. Right before my wedding I'm being sentenced to three days in the Brig. Unbelievable.' He thought. He stood slowly and began to walk out of the door. He reached engineering and stood outside B'Elanna's office, he waited for what he knew would follow. The inevitable came, and he heard his fiancée's loud screaming; "Right before my wedding, really?!" and "I can't leave my engines for three whole days!" But the one that struck him most was "So I can't even message the man I'm in love with without being arrested?!" He was so surprised, she didn't particularly like public displays between them and he she was screaming about how much she loved him in engineering. That was why it angered him so much when they dragged her out, unconscious from being stunned. He lunged at Tuvok, shouting and swearing, but Tuvok just stunned him as well.

When B'Elanna awoke, she realised someone else was in her cell. She looked around to see Tom on the floor, shirtless and sweaty, doing press ups. He was looking really scruffy. She also noticed the lights were out in the centre of the Brig, meaning it was night and guards were only on duty outside the doors. She saw his jumpsuit on the floor in the corner, along with all her clothes. When she looked down, she smiled at the fact that he had gotten her changed and put her in his under top, just like their pyjamas. She watched him for a while, and when it looked like he was finishing, she quickly tucked herself back under the covers. He came over and crouched in front of her, she opened her eyes enough that she could see him but so he didn't know she was awake. She used to do that when she was little, even in Star Fleet academy when she just wanted her roommate to be quiet. He swept her hair away from her forehead and kissed her gently, pulling the covers up over her.

"Night Babe." He laid down on the floor beside the bed and pulled a spare blanket over himself. She opened her eyes and looked at him, lying there on the floor so she could have the bed. She leaned of the side of the bed, and kissed his cheek.

"Why are you on the floor?" She asked. He rolled over to face her.

"I thought you were asleep?"

"No, I have been up for about an hour actually."

"Doing what, why didn't you tell me?"

"I was enjoying watching you…work out." She blushed as she said it and he laughed slightly.

"Oh do you now. Well, lucky for you I work out non-stop in the Brig on when I was in…the federation…jail." He went quiet as he spoke, turning his eyes away. He didn't like talking about his past, he wasn't proud of it, he always thought she would be ashamed of being with someone who has a past like his, that she might leave him. She pushed his chin up to meet his eyes with hers.

"Stop thinking like that." She scolded him. "It's not going to happen."

"Thinking what?" He tore his eyes away from hers, trying to hide the fact that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"That. Thinking I'm ashamed of you and going to leave you. I don't care about your past. I've not exactly had the best past either! I don't care, I love you for who you are now, not who you were then." She leaned off the bed to kiss him. She wrapped her arms around his still sweaty shoulders and he wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her off the bed onto his chest, laughing through the kiss. She pulled back, and shifted her weight so she was comfy. "Am I too heavy?" She looked down at his blue eyes, looking embarrassed.

"What?"

"Am I too heavy?"

"Yeah, I heard you, I meant, what do you mean?" He looked at her pointedly and propped himself up on his elbows, she went to move off him but he pulled her back down. "Since when have you ever been too heavy to lie on my chest?"

"Well, I just…I don't know. I though since you went on the floor instead of getting in with me…" She turned away, but stayed where she was.

"Oh, Be. I didn't want to disturb you. Plus, that bed is smaller than a single bed, never mind what we're used to. I wanted you to be comfy." He leaned up and kissed her quickly, she peered down into his eyes.

"I'd be comfier if I was with you." She said, stroking the side of his face.

"Are you sure, I don't mind sleeping down here."

"I'm sure." She leaned down and kissed him again. "And thank you for your top by the way."

"Aww, your welcome, I wanted this to feel as normal as possible for you. He picked her up gently and they lay on the bed together, quickly falling asleep.

**Day 4**

"B'Elanna." Tom nudged her but she didn't wake up. "B'Elanna!" She began to drift awake.

"Hey, what time is it?" She rubbed her eyes and tried to move, Tom still had his arms wrapped tight around her, so she couldn't

"Oh sorry." He loosened his arms, but she nuzzled back down and he retightened his hold. "It's just coming up to eleven-hundred hours. She looked at him, startled.

"How do you know what time it is so accurately?" She basked in the warmth between them, it was particularly cold in the Brig, and she made a mental note to talk to the Captain about it.

"Well, remember when I spent thirty days in the Brig? I got used to meal times, shift changes and etcetera and I remember."

"Oh. Well, why did you wake me up?" She snuggled into him further.

"Because, err…Vorik's here." He loosened his grip on her considerably, worried what her reaction would be. She sat up slowly and looked around.

"What is it, Vorik?" She finally focused on him in a corner of the cell.

"Well, I thought you might get bored in here, and want something to do, instead of just sit here…with Lieutenant Paris." He eyed Tom with a look of hatred for a split second, but quickly returned his focus to B'Elanna.

"What you've brought me, id it absolutely vital?" She questioned viciously, having seen the anger in his eyes, directed towards her partner.

"Well, no, B'Elanna but-"

"It's Lieutenant!" She barker, wrapping her arms around Tom.

"But you're not on duty, you're just in the Brig!" He looked astounded at himself after he had said it and regained his 'Vulcan's have no emotions' stance. "Err…sorry…Lieutenant. Would you like me to leave the parts? All that needs doing is them being sorted out."

"No. I am spending the entire three days here, right where I am, in Tom's lap." She didn't realise how bad what she had just said really sounded until she saw the expression on Vorik's face. She turned to see Tom smiling at her in his special way that was just for her, with his eyes wide and eyebrows raised. She quickly decided how to do play this but quickly decided what to do. She leapt onto Tom, knocking him straight onto his back, she lay on him, running his hands through his hair, and he had barely wrapped his arms around her he was so surprised by her sudden course of action. It was Vorik that finally broke them off by coughing in an I-want-to-get-your-attention-but-not-too-obviously kind of way. She sat up and he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, clearly flustered. They both watched as anger and jealousy flicked across his face. "I'm sorry Ensign, what was it you needed?" She looked at him and tried not to laugh as he attempted to find his words.

"Vorik, just leave them in that corner." Tom pointed to where he had shed his uniform before exercising and hers before giving his top for her pyjamas, but he instantly regretted it. Vorik placed the box down and looked back at Tom.

"Very well Lieutenant." Vorik went to turn around but decided to get his own little bit of revenge. "I remember the last time you were in here, as and Ensign." B'Elanna picked up on how Vorik was treating her partner and decided it was unacceptable. "It showed that you were, are, unreliable, not very loyal, un-trustworthy, never mind how you abandoned B'Elanna for an entire month…" He made his way to leave, Tom was fuming, but decided to leave it.

"Vorik. I never considered that before. Maybe you're right." She left Tom, who looked wounded, and wandered over to Vorik. Walking around him slowly, she said; "Good thing too, do you want me Vorik?" She stopped in front of him and leaned in close. "Do you?" He looked overheated. "And you do make a good point, but do you know what Vorik, you will never be what Tom is, he is my best-friend, my lover, my shield, and he is mine. I will never be your, because you are none of those. Don't ever come and talk to me again unless it's strictly work related." She went and sat back down on Tom's knee, who had now swung his legs off the edge of the bed. "So don't ever come in here and talk to him like that again, and I do remember when he was demoted, and I remember when he was promoted. So he's been demoted and then promoted back before you have even been promoted. And one final thing, I don't care that he was demoted for being un-loyal, un-trustworthy and unreliable to StarFleet, but I know he will never be any of those to me, and I'm proud of him for what he did, so back off." Vorik stormed out immediately, raising the shield. B'Elanna turned to Tom, but he was looking at her with tears I his eyes.

"I thought I had actually lost you to Vorik then. Don't you ever do that to me again!" He wrapped his arms tight around her. And pulled her back down to where they were before they were so rudely interrupted.


	12. Chapter 11

**Day 6**

"I bet you can't do three claps." B'Elanna said, crossing her legs on the bed, watching Tom. She watched as he did a push up and clapped three times. "Okay, I'm impressed." He smiled up at her and kept doing his impressive three-clap press-ups.

"I can do something, well, I used to be able to, but I think I still can. Let me take a break first." He walked over and sat next to her, taking a drink from her cup.

"Hey, that's mine." She pushed him and split a bit on his top.

"Well, exercising so much, just for you, may I point out, makes me thirsty, but I could stop?"

"No, no, it's okay, you just keep exercising and looking so gorgeous." He laughed and kissed her. "Y'know, I think you were gonna show me a trick!"

"Ah yes, okay." He took his shirt off and passed it to her, getting ready to continue his exercising. He did a few push ups, then during another one, he flipped over and landed back in the push up position, did a few more, then did one backwards. "What do you think?" He wiped his forehead as he said it.

"That…was…amazing!" He smiled cheekily and pulled her onto the floor.

"I think you need to do some exercise."

"Are you trying to tell me I'm fat…or out of shape?" She questioned him, hurt in her voice.

"No, definitely not…" He leaned in and kissed her. "…I just want to watch you exercise for a bit."

"But I have no motivation. If I don't, I just get to watch you…" She leaned in and kissed him again.

"I have a motivation for you. Try doing a press up." She got into the push-up position but just before she went in to start, he positioned himself so their heads were inline. "Okay, go." She leaned down for the first push up and as she got lower he kissed her and she pushed herself back up. She rolled off to the side and turned to face him.

"Okay, okay. I like that motivation." Just as they began her work out Harry arrived and scared them.

"Well, well, having fun you two?" It made B'Elanna jump but Tom managed to grab her and hold her up, he let her down gently. They sat up against the edge of the bed and B'Elanna leaned onto him.

"Take a seat Harry, the floor is…comfy?" Tom gestured towards the spoken of floor.

"I'm okay, I'm only stopping by to tell you that we are approaching that M class planet and also Captain Janeway says you guys are free to go and returning to duty shifts tomorrow." Harry waved as he left, and B'Elanna and Tom sat in silence for a minute.

"Whoa. That was over quickly." Tom stood up and went over to the pile of clothes on the floor. "And I'm really surprised we were allowed to stay in the same cell."

B'Elanna was busy neatening the bed so it could retract back into the wall. "Yeah. Hey, next time we come in here all I'm gonna think about is Vorik's face earlier." Tom laughed from the other side of the room as he finished getting dressed. The bed retracted into the wall just as Tom brought over her clothes, helping her get dressed.

"What's with that by the way?" He asked, wrapping her jacket around her shoulders.

"What's with what?"

"All the sudden…public displays of affection? Not that I don't like it, I love it, it's just...not how I thought you wanted our relationship to be." Tom held her hand and sat down where they had just been a couple of minutes ago.

"What do you mean?" She asked, sitting beside him.

"Well, today in front of Vorik for one. You were all over me, not that I didn't like it, and in Engineering, right before you were stunned you were shouting about how much you loved me, and in the Mess Hall the other night when we were with Harry and Seven, you were very…intimate. And honestly, I don't mind whether you want us not to even touch during the day or whether you want to be attached at the hip all day, I'm just confused." He looked into her deep brown eyes, seeking answers. She let out a long-sigh and thought about it for a minute.

"I…I overheard a few young, really pretty Ensign's talking about you the other day. Apparently you had been doing that whole workout in the gym and they had been watching. They were talking about you and discussing if they were your girlfriend. At first I thought, we have been together for so long now, how can they not know? But then I thought, because I'm scared to be intimate in public, some people still might not know." Tom looked at her for a second and took her into his arms. "The second reason is, I really hate that we have to pretend to act different around each other in public, once again because I'm scared. And, after trying it, I don't care, as long as I have you, I don't care! I like not having to hide it anymore, I like being able to hold onto you and kiss you in the Mess Hall, to walk to the Bridge with you hand in hand." She looked into her beautiful-blue eyed pilots eyes and smiled at him.

"So, where are we now then? Sort of like out, I can kiss you and hold you in public, or just staying in, like what we do?" Tom asked, but B'Elanna grabbed his hand and led him out into the corridor. Once out in the corridor she kissed him passionately, listening as a few crew members passed by. "So out then?" She laughed and kissed him again.

"So, are you still coming to the Holodeck tonight with me and Tom, Cupcake?" Harry asked as he handed her a sandwich.

"I will comply, also, I talked to B'Elanna and asked her to accompany us. To join in, I said that we could give her a role if she like it." Seven picked up the sandwich and inspected carefully.

"Aww, good luck with that, me and Tom have been trying to convince her to join us for three years, she won't come no matter-"

"She said she would come." Seven took a bite from her sandwich and Harry's jaw dropped.

"You actually got her to come?! What did you say to her Cupcake?" Harry took a large bite from his sandwich as she swallowed hers.

"I said: Lieutenant Torres may I speak with you? To which she said: you can call me B'Elanna, we're friends now. I said: Thank you, we are friends now, you are my very best friend, apart from Captain Janeway. She replied: Thank you Seven, that means a lot to me. I said: As my best-friend, would you accompany me to the Holodeck with Harry and Tom, I get lonely because our men have each other to talk to, the Megan and Jenny Delaney, the Twin Terrors, which made her laugh, have each other, so I would have you. Only this once I promise, I know you don't like Captain Proton. She said: I would love to. I was hoping to get involved in some things Tom likes so this'll be fun. Ill meet you there when Tom goes, I need to get back to engineering, see you later seven. Then I said: bye. Then finally, I came to meet you." Harry had finished his sandwich and was listening intently.

"So B'Elanna's coming. What role do you think she should play?" Harry reached across and took half of the remainder of Seven's sandwich. She raised her eyebrow and her whole eye piece moved. He moved across the table and ran his finger along it.

"Maybe something to do with Captain Proton?" Seven suggested, pulling the rest of the sandwich and the plate away from him. He shuffled back around the table to face her and got himself comfy.

"Cupcake, it's all to do with Captain Proton."

"I mean, something _to do_ with Captain Proton. I think she might find it more interesting if she can be close to Tom in this as well. We could create one, like am Engineer for the ship, so it's close to what she's used to, and it just happens to be Captain Proton's girlfriend. We could even write a starter episode that Tom and B'Elanna know nothing about." Seven finished her sandwich and head over to the replicator. She returned with two of Neelix's cupcakes. "Neelix wants us to try these, he is making several different cake samples and the top five he will show to B'Elanna and Tom for their wedding choices."

"Be, are you sure you want to come, you don't have to, and have you seen my leather jacket?" Tom was searching high and low for it, but could not find it.

"This one?" B'Elanna came sauntering out of the bathroom, wearing it.

"Yes, where did…" Tom faded out as he wandered over to her. "Are you wearing anything underneath there?"

She laughed and leaned in for a kiss. "No, but wait here." She scampered through to the bathroom and re-emerged a few minutes later. "What do you think?" She did a little turn and handed him his leather jacket.

"Be, I love it, where did you get this?" He pulled his jacket over his shoulders.

"Well, Harry and Seven told me to get outfit because they had written a new character and episode." B'Elanna was wearing a tight white top tucked into dark green leggings, with lace up boots. It emphasized all the stuff it should.

"You look like me! But waaaaaay better." He told her, when they left they found that Harry and Seven had already got there and were inside the holodeck. "So, do you know anything about your new character, or this episode?"

"No. They said they'll tell us when we're here." The two entered hand in hand and looked around.

"Thought you'd started the program?" Tom pooped the last of his chewing gum into his mouth, putting the empty wrapper back in his pocket.

"No, me and Harry are making some last minute adjustments, but…" Harry programmed the correct information into the computer on the wall, and Captain Proton's rocket ship appeared around them. We can't start yet, but you two can just go and sit in there. Harry directed them towards a small room that had been added to the ship. Tom walked back out immediately

"Since when did we have a room like this?" Tom questioned, B'Elanna on his arm.

"Don't worry Tom, it's just while we make the last adjustments." Tom nodded and walked back through with B'Elanna.

"So Be?" Do you like my ship?" Tom was looking around when Seven came in.

"You must read these." She laid down to PADD's and left.

"I love your ship, and this one is for you." She handed him a PADD and for about ten minutes they sat in silence, reading about the episode and B'Elanna's new character. "So…says here it's an improvisation episode. Is that usual?" She turned to Tom, who had just finished reading.

"Nope. This is the first time. Also says, they have planned a few events but want to see what happens. Now, Mrs Proton, shall we see what Buster and Constance are doing?" They exited the room to find them kissing all over the control box. "They were some…last minute modifications, weren't they?" B'Elanna laughed and nodded.

"Or maybe it's an example?" B'Elanna walked over to Tom, he picked her up underneath her legs as she held onto his shoulders. He stood with her in her arms kissing her lustfully, they were only interrupted when Harry came through and asked if they were ready, the room disappeared behind them and it became the engine room, as usual. "We'll be right through." Harry left and Tom put her down. She blew a huge bubble and leaned in close so it popped on his and her face.

"You stole my gum!" He let her down but she jumped up on a storage container.

"No…" B'Elanna looked away, but then straight back at him. He finished picking gum of her face, as she did for him. "By the way, Neelix says later on we need to go and choose a wedding cake options and designs. He sent a message to me three times. Now, let's go, I'm excited."


	13. Chapter 12

"So, who has to stay at Harry's tomorrow?" B'Elanna nudged Tom back awake. "Hey, you fell asleep on me!" She pretended to look offended, but it quickly wore away as she saw how cute he looked. "You look really dishy!" She picked popcorn from last night's movies out of his hair.

"I look…dishy? Since when did you say dishy?" He laughed and shook his head, spraying the rest of the popcorn at her. "Okay then…you look…foxy!" He laughed at the expression on her face, right before she tackled him to the floor.

"Foxy?!" He flipped her over and nuzzled into her neck.

"No." He paused and met her eyes. "You look gorgeous, amazing, sexy, fantastic, beautiful, and your mine." He pulled her down to him and covered her mouth with his. "What were you saying before?" He picked her up and they say on the couch.

"I was just wondering if you knew who won the competition yet." She leaned into his solid chest and pulled a blanket around the two of them.

"No, Harry says a lot of people were wondering so he wants to announce it in the Mess Hall, if that's okay with you, babe?" He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Yeah, that's okay. So, what do you want to do, we have 4 hours until our duty shifts?"

"Well, Harry wants us in the Mess Hall in three hours, but I have one final surprise for you, I've been working on it all week." He pushed the blanket off them both and stood up. "Just bring a towel, sunscreen and your beautiful self." He winked at her as she laughed.

"Smooth, babe, real smooth." She folded up the blanket and tidied away all the mess and leftover food.

"I have a gift for you, but you can't have it until we're there." He disappeared into the next room.

"Until we're where?" She waited for a reply but none came. "Tom? Until we're where?"

"It's a surprise, sweetie, but you'll love it." He came wandering back through with a large package.

"That's so stereo-typical Tom." She laughed but he looked hurt. "No, no, no, baby, the present, it's so stereo-typically wrapped. White wrapping paper with a big red bow." She hugged him tightly and he relaxed into her hug.

"Well, here. But don't let me see you in it. I'll meet you at Holodeck two in twenty minutes." He pulled on some long swim shorts and a t-shirt. "I gotta make some finishing touches, see you in a few." He kissed her and headed out the door. B'Elanna sat down on the bed and unwrapped the package her partner had given her. She looked down at the beautiful bikini and sarong in the box, neatly folded and placed on wrapping paper. She slipped on the bikini and pulled on a dress. She brushed her hair and applied some make-up that complimented the bikini. She grabbed the sarong and put in her purse with sunscreen and sunglasses for her and Tom. She headed for the door.

"Hey Kat?" Chakotay cooed as he left the bathroom.

"Yeah honey?" They both paused at the sudden use of intimate nicknames.

"Well, y'know that planet we're coming up to, and Tom and B'Elanna are spending a week on the little star or planet for their surprise honey moon? Well, there was another, smaller one, and I booked us three days on there, together if you'd like to." He lifted her a plate down from the high cupboard she had been trying to reach.

"I'd love to, that's so sweet. I promise, no work or anything. Just me and you the whole time." She kissed him and served him up some food she had been making. He was drying of his hair with a towel when she handed him the plate. "Why is everything in your kitchen so high up?" She laughed as she swept the remnants of a broken cup into the bin and put his chair back at his table.

"Well, I'm a lot taller than you, but I'll lower it all for you, I promise." He lifted her up to reach the new cup that was needed. He placed her down gently and she poured him some home-made herbal tea. "Mmmm, this is amazing. What's in it?" He sipped more of the tea and pulled on a t-shirt and pants.

"Err, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, lemon, and some honey. And it was green tea leaves." He poured himself another cup. "Well, it's amazing." She was rubbing her neck so he walked over and gave her a neck massage.

"You haven't given me a neck massage since we were back on that planet…New Earth." She leaned into the massage and rested her head against him. "You looked after me for a long time, even since then."

"That's because I've loved you for a long time, even since then." She tensed up beneath his touch and he stopped rubbing her neck. "What? I don't make bath-tubs by hand for anyone, or run out into thunderstorms for anyone, or just make up stories, only for the people I love." She turned slowly and looked at him searchingly.

"You've loved me since New Earth?" She implored.

"No. I've loved you since before that. I can't remember exactly when I realised I'd fallen in love with you, but it was a long time ago." He kissed her gently, brushing her hair out of her face.

"You were so professional all these years, why didn't you say anything? I had no idea."

"You were very 'StarFleet', you still are, and I admire that. I didn't want to put you in an awkward position, but it tore my heart out every time you would go on an away mission and get in danger, every time I was told you were in Sickbay, and it crushed me when any other man came near you." Chakotay felt exposed, but Kathryn was taking it all in, so he didn't mind.

"I had no idea, but I do now. But can I ask something?" She urged gently.

"Of course. Anything."

"Why did you wait so long, am I really worth it?" She immediately regretted asking the question, and blinked back tears.

"You weren't just worth the wait, you were worth the fight. I had to fight the want to just kiss you, tell you how I felt a million times, the fight to hit any other man who came near you, but I would wait twenty, thirty, seventy, I would wait forever for you Kat, I would fight anyone for you. I would do anything for you." She kissed him devotedly, and he returned it.

"I love you so much, Chakotay, I love you so much." She murmured, tears running down her cheeks.

"I love you too, Kat, I always will."

"Everybody can I have…Everyone can I…" Neelix desperately tried to gather everyone's attention, but the Mess Hall was just too loud.

"Everything okay Neelix?" Niccoletti walked up to the food counter, surveying the food before her.

"Argh, I need everyone's attention but it's just too loud." The bustling chef handed her a plate.

"I can help you there." She placed the plate on the side and stood up on a chair. "Hey, listen up! Our head chef here, Neelix has something to say, so be quiet." Neelix helped her down off the chair and thanked her, as all eyes turned to him.

"I'd…err…I'd just like to say…if you were interested in Tom and B'Elanna's contest, Harry will be reading the results in three hours here…so be back in three hours!" He quickly and hastily made his way back to the food counter as the noise in the Mess Hall climbed back up.

"Harry, Seven, what can I getcha?" Neelix brought over two plates.

"What have you got Neelix?" Harry questioned, looking over all the bowls of food.

"Well, I have been cooking lots of what the crew calls Delta-Food. I also have some of B'Elanna and Tom's favourites though, it's kind of their week, and everyone is buzzing about them and their news. I have banana pancakes, toast and something called brioche? The crew seems to really like the brioche. I also have our usual Delta-breakfast things over there" Neelix finished the grand tour of the food counter and moved onto the next people.

"What do you want Cupcake?" Harry was helping himself to a stack of banana pancakes and toast.

"I will try the brioche." Seven helped herself to a brioche and a pancake. "What is this?" Seven looked at the golden colour liquid in the jug.

"Oh, that's apple juice, I love apple juice, do you wants some?" Harry said, pouring a glass and setting out an empty one in preparation.

"I have never had it before." Seven looked at it suspiciously. "May I try some of yours?" He nodded and lowered his glass and handed it to her, swallowing his drink. She lifted the glass to her lips tentatively and took a sip.

"So do you like it?" Harry pressed, taking the cup from her hand and refilling it.

"I prefer other drinks, but it is nice. I will have some." She said, taking the second cup of apple juice form him. They walked around and eventually found a table in the middle of the Mess Hall and began to eat.

"Hey, you were exactly twenty minutes!" Tom greeted his partner.

"Yeah, I couldn't wait to see what you've got for me, I bet I'll love it though."

"Okay, come here and close your eyes." He picked up a picnic basket he had and he covered her eyes with his hands when she got to him. He tapped some details into the data PADD on the wall and the program appeared around them. B'Elanna could feel the sand beneath her feet and assumed they were on the Paxau or Tahiti programs. "What do you think?" He uncovered her eyes and she looked around.

"Oh my God, Tom, did you make this?" Tears brimmed her eyes as she took in the program.

"Yeah, especially for you." He took her into his arms as she began to cry.

"I can't believe you remembered." She murmured, her head buried in his chest.

"Of course I remembered, if it wasn't for this dream, we wouldn't have got back together. I want to make it real, to show you that our love is real. I know sometimes you have doubts, so know you know." He could feel her sobbing more into his chest. He pulled her away from him and wiped away her tears gently, kissing the sore patches. After she had gathered herself, she tried to wipe the mascara stains off his top.

"I'm sorry. Now your tops covered in my makeup."

"It's okay, I'll just take it off." He pulled the dirtied shirt off and threw it in the sand. He laid out the picnic blanket and wandered back over to her. He picked up a handful of sand and smudged it on the front of her dress. "Oh no, now it's dirty too, guess you'll have to take it off." She laughed at him and pushed him into the water.

"You want to see your gift then, can I show you now?" She asked, holding onto the bottom of her dress in anticipation.

"Yes. Show me." She pulled off her dress to reveal black bikini studded with small gems.

"Get out the water for a second, I have something for you." She pulled the box he had given to her out of her bag and handed it to him. He opened it up and pulled out a small, yellow data-chip.

"What is it, honey?" He looked at the piece of glass and turned it over and over.

"It's our…wedding." She shuffled awkwardly in the sand.

"You decided?" He looked at her joyfully and picked her up in his arms. "Do you want to look at it after this?" He looked at her carefully.

"Yeah, but there is one thing missing from this program."

"Computer…add Paris-Torres children holograms." They both watched as two small children, one boy about three, and one girl about two, appeared in the sand, playing and building sandcastles. "Want to go swimming?" Tom walked over the edge of the river and held out his hand. She took it graciously and moved into the water with him, just as their 'kids' came crashing in with them.

"Okay, I'll go load it up." Paris took the small data-chip and walked over to a socket in the wall, posting in and watching as it loaded up.

"So, do you want a full tour?" B'Elanna began to walk along towards the chapel. "It's quite complex, and long-winded."

"Tell me all about it. It looks incredible." Tom jogged up behind her and slipped hid hand through hers.

"Okay." She inhaled deeply. "We will have the main ceremony in this chapel, and there is enough seating for all the crew. The Captain wants to do a ship-wide comm of the ceremony, and I will enter from down there, because the girls in Engineering say I have to. My room for preparations is just down there, and yours is just here. The Ceremony will be afterwards, people will begin to make their way to the other holodeck where there will be a restaurant. Neelix said he wanted to hand-cook all the food, and some of the crew have volunteered to help. I have already made a seating plan. What do think?" B'Elanna turned to Tom, who was taking it all in keenly.

"I think it's going to be the new best day of my life." He kissed her gently, reaching his hand up to the side of her face. He caressed her cheek lovingly, holding onto her.

"What was the previous best day of your life?" B'Elanna quizzed him, removing the data-chip from the wall.

"The day you said you'd marry me."

"Aww, you're such a hopeless romantic Tom, what was the one before that?"

"The day you told me you loved me." B'Elanna laughed gently at his answer.

"Let me guess, the one before that was the day we first met." She said jokily, walking back over to him but a serious look was across his face. "What?" She looked at him carefully for a minute, realising he was blushing profusely. "It…it was?" She put down her purse and the basket and walked over to Tom. "Really?" He nodded gently and looked into her eyes.

"You're the only good thing that's ever happened to me Be, the best thing I've ever known. I love you more than anything." He stroked hair away from her head and traced his fingers along the ridges on her forehead.

"…Really?" The doubt in her voice was un-miss able.

"Don't doubt it Be, it's the truth." He pulled her into a tight hug. "This wedding looks amazing Be."

"I hope you'll like it tomorrow." She pulled back and picked up her purse and he picked up the basket.

"As long as you're at the altar with me, I wouldn't care where we were." Tom held her hand as they headed towards the Mess Hall.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. The guests of honour have arrived!" Tom and B'Elanna walked in, they had decided to make a quick detour and get into uniform before going.

"Harry, I though you said you were just going to tell us, I thought we said no big deal." B'Elanna shook her head and laughed, trying to dodge the doctor, but not quickly enough because he had already take the picture.

"This was better. Okay, now, let's get down to business. On day one, Tom hand-made B'Elanna dinner and set up a night of movies on the couch, what do we vote it?" Harry looked around and pointed at Samantha Wildman. "Sam, what do we vote it?"

"I'd say a six." Sam, looking round the room, was mostly agreed with.

"Okay, the score is seven-nil to Tom! Day two, B'Elanna home-made him breakfast, lunch, tea and watched Captain Proton episodes all night, what do we vote it….Neelix?"

"Oh…err…eight!" Neelix seemed quite content with his answer.

"Okay, on Day three, and this is a good one, B'Elanna established a secret messaging connection with Tom, what do we vote it? How about you Commander?"

Chakotay looked angry at the fact that he had been disturbed, there was fifty people at the front of the crowd desperate to vote, yet Harry had picked him. "Five." Chakotay turned back around a slumped down in his chair.

"Okay, then, she hand-made him pizzas and they had a picnic in a Jeffries tube." A wave of 'ooo's and 'wit-woo's' and whistled washed across the crown. "What do we vote it, Tuvok?" The crowd fell silent and all eyes fell upon the Vulcan.

"An eight would be an appropriate score." Everyone laughed at his formality in this situation.

"Okay, on days four and five they were locked in the Brig, but I have been informed by B'Elanna that she wants to personally rate Tom a nine for how kind and funny and attentive he was. The score is now twenty-one to sixteen on B'Elanna's side. Finally, we have B'Elanna going on a Captain Proton adventure for Tom, which Seven will vote on."

"A five!"

"Okay, the score is twenty-six to sixteen meaning that-" B'Elanna pulled Harry aside and whispered something in his ear. "We have a final entry, and I think the Captain can vote on this one." All eyes turned to her, and she stood up ready.

"Bring it Harry!" Laughter erupted from the crowd.

"Okay, about two weeks ago, Tom and B'Elanna decided to have a child. After the wedding they will terminate birth control and so on. Tom first brought up the subject and B'Elanna was originally on edge about it. In fact, so on edge, she broke up with him and punched him, sending him to Sickbay." B'Elanna felt uncomfortable as this bit was said, so Tom wrapped his arms around her to show it doesn't matter. "B'Elanna had a dream that night, making her realise just how much she loved Tom, and did want to have kids with him. The next day, she apologised, and explained to him her dream. He recreated the dream on the Holodeck as a way to confirm their love and show her just how real it was." Everybody turned to the Captain and not a single person made a noise.

"It has to be a ten!" Everybody cheered and congratulated the two until someone stepped out and spoke.

"Doesn't that make it a tie?" The room fell back into silence.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked, and everyone turned back to the Captain.

"How about…Tom stays with Harry, and B'Elanna can stay with me?" The Captain put out there, as the couple considered the option.

"Sounds great to me!" B'Elanna raised a glass of water she had into the air. "To a tie!" The crowd of happy crew-members and friends cheered. Tom leaned down and kissed B'Elanna lovingly and lustfully.


	14. Chapter 13

"B'Elanna! I've never seen a dress so beautiful, and it looks so good on you!" Kathryn handed B'Elanna a tissue as she dabbed under her eyes. "What do you think Seven? Sam?"

"I think she looks very appealing. I know that Lieuten- Tom, will like it." Seven handed the bride her veil.

"I agree, you look gorgeous! Let me put the veil on for you." Samantha attached it gently and adjusted it so it fell over her shoulders. It covered her face lightly and fell perfectly along her back and shoulders. "Oh my god, you are the prettiest bride I've ever seen!"

"Aww, thanks, but I just hope it's enough." B'Elanna sighed as she removed the veil and headed behind the screen to remove the dress.

"Enough for what?" Naomi Wildman questioned, trying on the veil.

"Naomi! Shhh! And don't mess with B'Elanna's veil." Sam hissed at her daughter.

"It's okay Sam, she can wear it, as long as it doesn't get damaged." B'Elanna laughed slightly as she watched the small child putting it back on. "And…enough for Tom. I saw him trying on his tux the other day, and he looks amazing, I just hope…I don't let him down." She came out from behind the screen in her basic scruffs.

"But Miss Torres! Tom loves you very much! Tom will not care. I have seen how much he loves you! I was with him the other day in the Mess Hall, and he was very excited for the wedding!" She smiled down at the small child in veil, gathering her up and hugging her tightly, she whispered a small thank you in her ear.

"Now, why did you girls get me here three hours before the ceremony, I need to get ready." B'Elanna hung her wedding dress back on the hanger and zipped its protective case around it.

"Well…" Kathryn began. "We wanted to help you. We made a special program, and we are going to join you. Computer…begin Janeway wedding preparations program Alpha six." She watched as the small bridal room disappeared and a spa resort appeared around her.

"Guys, thank you so much, but you didn't have to do this for me!" B'Elanna looked around at her surroundings.

"Yes we did! Plus, we can all enjoy it. Naomi, go find Tom now, he wants to give you your dress and show you the flowers you need to use." Naomi skipped out of the Holodeck as the women walked towards a small building.

"So, what's first then? And why does it take three hours?" B'Elanna sat down on a bench in the changing room.

"Firstly, we will go to the sauna, steam-room, and a pool with special relaxation and beauty herbs. Then, we go for a mud-bath, foot-soaking and hot rock therapy. Finally we have full body massages and facials. Then we can have some lunch in a small restaurant. Then we go to the wedding program, make sure everything is set up in Holodeck one and two, and do your hair and makeup." Seven finished, taking a steady breath after her explanation.

"Sounds amazing, thank you so much, I can't wait to get started." As B'Elanna pulled on a swimming costume on of the staff had given her, and all of them, she couldn't help but let her mind wander, wondering what Tom was up to.

Gathered in Ensign Kim's quarters was Tom, Chakotay, Harry and Neelix. The door chimed as all the men were having breakfast. "Enter." Harry called out. A small girl came wandering through the door and stood awkwardly in the entrance.

"Naomi, great, did your mum send you?" Tom didn't need his question to be answered, obviously she'd sent her, why else would she be here? He picked up a small, pale pink dress and handed it to her. "Here you go, Neelix has the flowers. Go and try it on, see if you like it." She dashed off happily with the dress in her hands into the bathroom.

"So, Tom, getting cold feet, any second thoughts?" Chakotay chuckled and refilled his mug.

"No, not a chance. This is going to be the best day of my life and I can count on it, as long as B'Elanna isn't having second thoughts, I'm happy." He smiled at the men sheepishly, but they took him seriously. Naomi came out of the bathroom wearing the little dress and was very happy, she clearly liked it very much. She had little white socks and black shoes on with it.

"Oh Naomi, you look fabulous!" Neelix hurried over to her and brushed her hair so it looked nice. The other men nodded in agreement as Neelix took her over to the sofa to discuss flower arrangements.

"I hear the Captain has a special program for B'Elanna, a spa program. They are running it now." Chakotay swigged at his tea and topped up his mug.

"I'm so excited." Tom murmured, eating a piece of toast and replicating himself some more. "Do you guys know all the plans?" Chakotay gave him a thumbs up and Harry copied. Tom sat for a minute, spreading butter onto his toast. He let his mind wander and wondered where B'Elanna might be right at this moment, what she was doing, whether she was thinking about him.

"This is so relaxing, how did you guys fins this program?" B'Elanna sunk further into the warm pool and let the water reach her chin.

"I use it all the time, really helps relax." Kathryn sunk under the water and swam around a little. She popped up at the other end of the pool. "Come on, have a swim while you're here." The other women swam gently under the water, and Seven bobbed her head along the top, avoiding water getting in her implant.

"Well, it's great, want to go to the steam room? Then the sauna? We can't spend too much time in here, much as I'd love to…" B'Elanna pulled herself out the water and dried herself of with a towel.

"I'll send you the program, and I agree, we'll have five minutes in each and then move on." The rest of the women followed suit and headed towards the steam-room and sauna.

"Tom, where's your suit? Neelix wants to steam it, if that means anything to you." Chakotay looked through all the rooms in Harry's quarters. "Computer…locate Lieutenant Paris."

"Lieutenant Paris is on the Bridge." The Computer beeped its reply to Chakotay, who wasn't too happy.

"Chakotay to Paris." He waited, but no response came. "Chakotay to Bridge."

"Bridge here. Is there an issue Commander?" Tuvok's voice rang clear through the Comm line.

"Why is Tom there?"

"We were just discussing wedding arrangements, do you require his presence?"

"Yes. I need him, sorry. Tell him to get to Harry's quarters as soon as he can."

"Understood Commander. Tuvok out." The Comm line fell silent and Chakotay sat down with a fresh cup of tea. Tom came rushing through the doors a couple of minutes later.

"You needed me?"

"Yeah, Neelix is steaming your suit, and there is a group of Ensigns and Lieutenants who are waiting for you." Chakotay nodded through to the room on his left, to where Tom found a group of women, only a few of which he knew.

"Niccoletti, Ensign Lang, you…guys…what do you need?" He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, leaning against the wall.

"We're here to do your hair, and make sure your suit is perfect, we just came to see when and where you'd like to do it." The group of women all stared at him hopefully.

"Err…so you're basically…hair and makeup?" He looked around and stretched slightly.

"Yeah, we have some face creams and things, and something needs to be done about that hair." Niccoletti leaned up to smooth it down but he jerked away. "Hey, you can't wear it like that."

"Why not? B'Elanna says she likes it like this, so this is how it stays." A sea of 'aww' and 'how sweets' rose up from the group. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Okay, no hair treatments but we still have to do your face creams and stuff. Anyone who was on hair, you can go now." Megan Delaney instructed, watching a group of girls leaving.

"Okay, well, you need to get to the Holodeck in an hour and a half to begin, see you then!" The women began filing out, just as Harry fought his way in.

"What was that about?" He asked, looking around the room.

"Hair and Makeup apparently."

"Hair and makeup, for you?" Harry laughed at his friend's statement.

"Yeah, they need me there in an hour and a half. So, want to run some final wedding preparations with me? We need to see Neelix and check he has everything he needs for the meal, Naomi wants to do a practise run with the flowers, and we need to make sure the meal program is running perfectly." Tom pulled on a jacket and his Comm Badge, setting off out the door with Harry at his heels.

"That sauna was so…rustic? It just looked so old-fashioned. It was really nice. What's up next?" Sam asked, looking around the Complex.

"I believe it was the mud-bath. What is a mud-bath?" Seven turned to Kathryn who placed a hand on the younger woman's shoulder.

"Don't worry Seven, it's not as bad as you think. Its special mud, no just something from a garden." She watched as the younger woman's expression softened in relief.

"Shall we get going?" B'Elanna looked around at the different signs, finally locating the way to the mud-baths. "This way, I think!" B'Elanna pointed in the direction of what looked like a room that would contain mud-baths.

"Okay, let's go." Kathryn led the way, with Seven, B'Elanna and Sam in tail.

"It looks great!" B'Elanna hung her towel on the rack and gently stepped in. "Ooh, it's really hot." She placed another foot in and lowered herself precariously into the hot mud. She relaxed into the mud and Sam followed her lead.

"Come on Seven, you'll like it!" Kathryn urged Seven into the mud and sat down gently. "Okay, after this we have to rinse off in that bath over there and go through there for foot-soaking. Or would you prefer hot rock therapy first?" Three sets of eyes all turned to B'Elanna, waiting for her reply.

"I don't mind, I'm having such a great time. Thank you. You guys can choose. What about you Seven, you pick."

"Oh. Thank you. I have never had either treatments before, so, foot soaking?" B'Elanna nodded at her response.

"Okay, foot soaking it is. We will go in fifteen minutes, I'm just really enjoying this mud-bath." Her friends laughed and agreed. "I wonder what the boys are up to right now. Probably watching TV or something."

"Wouldn't surprise me. Though, I wonder what Naomi's up to, hopefully not getting into any trouble." Sam rolled her eyes at the memories of her daughter previously causing mayhem. "Computer…locate Naomi Wildman."

"Naomi Wildman is in Ensign Kim's quarters."

"Oh good, she can't be getting up to too much trouble then." Sam relaxed slightly at the new-found peace of mind.

"Now…can we go through the plan? I'm just so nervous. I want it all to go right." B'Elanna took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

"It will. Don't worry. It's all under control." Kathryn rubbed B'Elanna's shoulder in comfort. "It will all be absolutely perfect."

"I hope so. Let's talk plans."

"Okay. So I will be waiting at the altar with Tom. Chakotay will walk you down the aisle, until you reach his seat." Kathryn confirmed.

"Me and Harry will be following you down, and will follow you up to the altar." Seven continued the plans as everyone listened intently.

"Yeah. And Naomi will be in front of you the whole time, scattering the petals, white I think." Samantha sounded particularly proud at her daughters place in the wedding.

"And I have your ring for Tom, and Harry has Tom's ring for you." Seven finished.

"Great. Sounds like everything is under control." B'Elanna sounded relieved.

"Shall we go for the foot-soaking?"

"I think that's a great idea Kathryn!" Samantha followed with Seven and B'Elanna as their Captain led them to their next event.

"So Neelix has everything, and he has all the replicator tokens from everyone who's coming for the meal. Now, Naomi, do you have the petals?" Tom crouched down in front of the child.

"Yep. How's this." He watched as the young girl walked slowly through the corridor and threw petals gently down.

"That's fantastic! Have you shown Neelix?"

"No, should I show him?!" She looked so excited at her recent praise.

"Yes. Go show him quick!" He helped her pick the petals from the floor and watched her dash off to find Neelix.

"So Harry, what's up next?"

"Err…Oh yeah. Holodeck two, you wanted to check the meal plans." Harry showed him their to-do list on a PADD.

"Great, let's go. We're running out of time. I've only got half an hour until I need to be there to get ready. You have my ring right?"

"Yep. Right here." He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up to his friend.

"Good. Now let's go."

"That was great, and good idea on doing the facials and the foot-soaking at the same time, we were starting to run out of time."

"And I'm glad we skipped the hot rock therapy though, the first few burnt my back." B'Elanna laughed as the rubbed the sore patches on her back. "This massage is incredible though. After all the time I spend in Jeffries Tubes or working on the warp core, a proper massage really helps."

"I agree. We need to leave soon though. Are you nervous B'Elanna? Or excited?" The women all looked up at her as she considered her answer.

"Both. Like you wouldn't imagine. I'm so happy though."

"So, Tom, everything just perfect?" Harry laughed as they walked towards Holodeck One.

"Absolutely. It all looks great."

"So, are you nervous? Or excited?" Chakotay looked at him as he thought about his answer.

"Both. Like you wouldn't imagine. I'm so happy though."


	15. Chapter 14

Chakotay knocked on the door gently and waited for a reply. "Is everyone…y'know…dressed?"

"Yeah, come in!" Chakotay and Harry stepped in gently with Naomi following them in. Kathryn placed a quick kiss on Chakotay's cheek left with Samantha. Harry stood talking to Seven and handed her the ring she was to give B'Elanna, Naomi was brushing her hair in front of the mirror which left B'Elanna and Chakotay privacy to talk.

"So, are you nervous?" She laughed gently at his statement but nodded.

"Yeah. But, I'm more happy… and excited than nervous. How's Tom?"

"He's good. A group of women came to sort him out, make sure he didn't go up there in his pyjamas! He hasn't let anyone touch his hair though, he's worn it how he got out of bed."

"Why?" B'Elanna looked extremely puzzled.

"He said that's how you like it." Chakotay shrugged, but a huge smile spread across her face.

"Tom?" The Captain knocked on the door

"Yeah?"

"Are you ready? Can I come in?" Kathryn sounded awkward at the door.

"Yeah, come in." She stepped in and saw him struggling with his tie. "Do you know how to do a tie?" She laughed and stepped over, sorting it within seconds. "Oh."

"I thought those women came in to sort you out?" She handed him his blazer.

"Yeah, but I didn't like the bowtie." He pulled on the blazer and stood up.

"What are you doing about your hair?"

"Nothing. Why?"

"You look like you just got out of bed." She chuckled and handed him a comb.

"Exactly. B'Elanna loves it like this, she says it all the time." He threw the comb down on the desktop.

"That's cute. Are you ready? Everyone is here."

"Yeah. Let's go." The two left, swiftly closing the door behind them, headed for the altar.

"Where's my veil?" B'Elanna looked around for it.

"Here." Chakotay handed it from her, after finding it with Naomi. She positioned it on her head gently and arranged it. Checking her makeup she pulled on her heels and arranged her hair under her veil.

"Do I look okay?" She turned to Chakotay, but he was watching Kathryn from the door. "Chakotay!"

"Hmm?" He spun round and closed the door, trying to hide what he'd been doing.

"Do I look okay?" She rolled her eyes at him and laughed.

"Yeah. I think you look amazing." He hugged her gently before heading for the door again. "Everyone's here." He was exchanging signals with Kathryn when he finally came back in.

"Is it time?" She lifted her veil from the top of her head and laid it gently over her face.

"Yep. You ready?" Chakotay walked to the door and signalled for the music to start.

"Absolutely." She linked her arm through his and waited as Harry and Seven arranged themselves behind them, while Naomi arranged herself in front. The group began to walk slowly, and as they exited B'Elanna's room, all eyes turned to her, and she caught her breath as she saw Tom, he looked amazing. She was shaking a little but Chakotay held her tightly, but gently to keep her steady. Her mind and heart raced as she made her way towards her fiancée, but more importantly, towards her future.

Tom watched as she walked towards him, she looked a million miles away in her own thoughts, but she also looked right here thinking about her surroundings. He wondered if she was having second thoughts. Or regretting her decision.

"Oh my god!" Tom sighed as he watched his beautiful bride come down the aisle.

"What?!" The Captain looked suddenly alarmed at Tom's outburst, fortunately only she could hear it. She turned to him and looked around for the cause of his distress.

"She looks…outstanding." B'Elanna and Chakotay had almost reached the point where Chakotay would sit down, so Tom began to walk towards them. As they met, Chakotay hugged her and sat down, Naomi finished walking down the aisle and sat with her mum. Tom held his hand out to B'Elanna, who took it graciously. The couple made their way towards the altar. Upon reaching the altar, the two took position in front of their Captain and crew. Trembling, B'Elanna lifted her veil and nodded to the Captain to begin.

"We're gathered here today, not as Starfleet officers, but as friends and family, to celebrate the marriage of two of Voyager's finest. As Captain, the honour of joining these two people has fallen to me. These two, are two of my best-friends, and out here, in the middle of the Delta quadrant, I am more than happy that they have found each other. But before I declare them husband and wife, Tom and B'Elanna have prepared their own vows." All eyes turned to Tom as he prepared himself for his vows.

"I still don't know what I've done to deserve you, but whatever it is, I'll try to keep doing it. And I promise to stand by you, to honour you, to love you, till death do us part. You are the most beautiful, funny, clever, most loving person I've ever met. I will spend the rest of our lives doing whatever it takes to make you happy, because I love you more than anything else in this world." Harry handed him his ring and he gently slid it onto her finger. "May this ring be the symbol of my eternal love for you." He wiped a tear out gently from under her eye as it trickled down her cheek.

"You stood by me when most people would have run for the nearest airlock. You were willing to see past my shortcomings, and to take all the bumps and bruises that came along with it. You made me a better person, even though I put up one hell of a fight. I look forward to our journey together. I never thought I would meet someone like you, I never thought I would ever have anybody who cared about me the way you do. So thank you, thank you for being here with me, I will do whatever it takes, I will try my best to make our lives the best I can. I love you so much Tom Paris."

"Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris…do you take B'Elanna Torres as your wife?"

"I do." The Captain turned to B'Elanna.

"Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres…do you take Thomas Eugene Paris as your husband?

"I do."

"I believe there is some Klingon rituals you wanted to involve?" The Captain looked across the two of them. "Here." The Captain handed him a small blade. He gently pierced a whole in the top of his index finger, watching blood begin to gather at the puncture. He passed her the blade and she did the same.

"Q'utanOs teQa parvunO. T'epono a'tiulliA conturnO Malik po-pa'voR. B'ellek kyamo n'epiolA c'urnarO. I love you. I'll always be here for you. I'll always protect you. He held his bleeding finger out to her.

"Q'utanOs teQa parvunO. T'epono a'tiulliA conturnO Malik po-pa'voR. centarO po'limin kap'mos. I love you. I'll always be here for you. I'm always yours." She pressed her finger to his and their blood mixed.

"This was the Klingon marriage blood oath. It celebrates that they are one together and always there for each other." He gently held her wrist and bit it gently, creating a mark but not drawing blood. She returned the action for him. "This was the Klingon Love Oath. It represents their eternal love for each other and only each other." The Captain confirmed, handing them both a small plaster for the tips of their fingers.

"Q'utanOs teQa parvunO." Tom repeated.

"Q'utanOs teQa parvunO." B'Elanna replied, pressing her forehead to his.

"With the power vested in my by Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets, I now pronounce you husband and wife." Tom gathered his new wife up in his arms and kissed her devotedly, holding her tight for a long time. Crewmembers and friends made their way up to congratulate them, before making their way to the Holodeck next door. After a while, when the two were finally alone, Tom sat down on one of the pews and invited her to sit with him.

"I love you so much Be." He kissed her gently.

"I love you two Tom." She leaned into him gently and he took her into a warm hug.

"Look inside your ring." He gently pulled it off her finger and handed it to her. "Read the inscription."

_"__I'll always love you." _She placed it back on her finger. "That's so sweet, what does yours say?"

"Mine doesn't say anything, I had to rearrange some replicator codes to have this inside, but it-" She leaned in and kissed him forcefully, they leaned back on the edge of the pew, and it broke, sending the two tumbling to the floor. Laughing uncontrollably, Tom stood up and helped his wife to her feet. "Good thing this is just a hologram, I don't think God would be too happy." She leaned in for another kiss and he returned it gently.

"I agree, but we'd better get going. I wish I'd brought an extra dress, it's going to be awkward having a meal in something like this." She sighed but began to walk towards the door.

"Good thing I know you so well. I got you a small present, follow me." He led her to his changing room. He handed her a long, black ball-gown and a pair of slip-on shoes.

"Aww, thank you!" She slipped off the wedding dress and hung it on the hanger. Creating a pile including her dress, shoes, gloves and veil, she set it for the transporter to take them back to their quarters. At the last minute Tom pulled of his tie and threw it on the pile. "By the way, I love your hair."

"I knew you would! I didn't let them do anything to it!" He smiled and wrapped his hand through hers.

"Let who?" B'Elanna leaned up and ran her hand through his hair.

"The women that came this morning to do my suit and stuff." B'Elanna pulled away from him and walked across the room.

"You let another woman dress you…on our wedding day?!" B'Elanna was fuming.

"Oh, god, no! I just realised how that must have sounded. No, they wanted to make sure I kept in time and made sure my suit was steamed and…honest! They…they…" Tom struggled to find the words to describe, but he ran out.

"They what?" B'Elanna pushed.

"They just made sure I was here on time, that my skin was clear and that my suit was perfect. They didn't dress me or anything like that! Do really not trust me, especially on our wedding day..." Tom sat down on the edge of a small bed, he looked hurt and wouldn't make eye contact. B'Elanna suddenly realised how stupid she'd acted, did she really not trust him that much? Of course she did! Sometimes she just let her stupid Klingon anger get in the way, not to mention her jealousy.

"Of course I do, it's just, you looked so amazing today, and you're so handsome and sweet and you could pretty much have anyone on this ship and-"

"But I want you." He stood up as she walked over to him slowly.

"But-"

"But I want you!" He picked her up and fell backwards onto the bed, erupting a scream from her. He nuzzled into her hair gently. "But I want you." B'Elanna stood up and pulled him up afterwards, kissing him gently. "Y'know, I think everyone is waiting for us, we are kind of important today."

B'Elanna laughed gently. "Let's go, then!" The two exited together, hand in hand, so happy to married.


End file.
